You are the Light in your Shadow Times

by Rob Brookler

Living in a time of light, we will of necessity encounter the shadows within us and around us. It's critical we understand that this is not intended as a burden. These shadows are never meant to darken our view of ourselves or our view of the world. It's simply that our wholeness grows as we make more room for light within us. So with these encounters we are merely extending light into those places that light has not yet fully reached ... places that still hold remnants of fear or wounding.

And this is why those of us who consciously align with light and wholeness will often be directed to their places of discomfort and fear. Or we will encounter challenges or unpleasantness in the world that arouse these anxieties.

None of us welcomes these encounters. None of us enjoys being reminded of his or her wounded places. But we should never interpret them as a disaffirmation of our core wholeness. Or as a disaffirmation of the light and wholeness we carry. We are drawn into these shadows only because the obstacles to our ever-increasing wholeness and freedom reside here.

In fact, thanks to the power of light, even as we feel those fears and anxieties, we are already restoring these places to wholeness.

An age of light, not of darkness ...

So these encounters are in no way an attack or a judgment against us. These shadows do not conceal badness or weakness or anything we should feel ashamed of. They simply guard places that we have yet to fully acknowledge, accept, forgive, heal. Places that we have, until now, partially excluded from light.

Because we live in an age of great light, these encounters will be more frequent. And this is challenging. We are illuminating, healing and expanding almost constantly. So it can seem like we're spending more time in the shadows than in the light.

Consequently, we must remind ourselves that in these meetings with our shadows we are the light. We are not victims lost in the darkness, but explorers carrying the lantern of light. And the territory we are exploring, though guarded by some fear, actually contains healthy parts of us. Parts of us waiting to be discovered ... waiting for this light.

No need to rush or panic. Time is literally on your side ...

If you flip the light-switch in a dark room, darkness is instantly dispelled. But when it comes to the human condition, light propagates a bit more slowly. So as we enter our shadowy places, there will be some "lag" during which darkness seems to dominate.

Though we may feel somewhat abandoned during this lag time, this delay is actually for our benefit. Because we have emotions and emotional memories that run deep, bringing light to a place defended by our own fear involves some complexity. At some levels, we'd prefer not to see these places ... not to "illuminate" them.

Because we have these levels of resistance, healing proceeds in levels. That is, incrementally. Light must, in a sense, absorb in. It heals and clears at the outermost layer, allowing the light to penetrate to the next layer, and so on. And the process progresses in steps, gently and gradually, over time.

When we become impatient, feeling anxious or stuck in the shadows, we must remind ourselves that this process moves slowly and incrementally in deference to our comfort. If light were to move fully and instantly into a wounded place, we would find this intolerable.

So when we're feeling alone with our shadows and distress, the light is in reality there with us. In its wisdom, it's simply moving at a pace and in a manner that we can manage.

Trusting to the pace and power of light ...

As we enter our shadowy regions and feel that initial anxiety or other wounded feelings, it's easy to become alarmed or disheartened. It's easy to feel overwhelmed imagining more in the darkness than is actually there.

But the great power of light is that it does not "contend" with darkness. It displaces it. So as light leads us into these shadows, we do not need to dread or war with what we're shown. We simply need to see it. And again, in its compassion, light will reveal only as much as we are prepared to see ... and able to heal.

If we can trust to light's wisdom in this ... not imagining what may lie in the darkness but observing only what light shows to us ... we will have this healing. And as we continue to heal and the shadows lift one by one, we will ultimately discover that there is no darkness at all. And being our own lantern of light, there is no territory we need fear.
 

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