Monday, October 18, 2021

Balancing Light and Dark

 

Change in Perspective

“Even the smallest shift in perspective can bring about the greatest healing.”
Joshua Kai (The Quantum Prayer: An Inspiring Guide to Love, Healing, and Creating the Best Life Possible)

          My friends will tell you that I am no Pollyanna. I am not a continuous ray of sunshine, believe me. In fact, I tend to point out the darkness in the world rather than dwell in the light. But I have learned that behind every darkness, there is light, and behind every light there is darkness. If we are conscious of that, there is every possibility of shifting perspective and allowing ourselves to see both at the same time.

          We can look at what is going on in the world—a pandemic, massive loss of life, wars, internal bickering, racism, inequality and injustice, the rich and ungodly rich maneuvering for power and position—there is so much that seems just awful and unnecessary. Or we can see all of that as a catalyst for awakening—something so terrible and unthinkable that it snatched us from our sleepwalking unreality. We can adjust our perspective enough to see that alongside all the awfulness, good things are also happening. Because the good stuff gets almost no press, we don’t even know about it. Just scratch the surface, and you’ll find that people are helping people everywhere.

          Sometimes, we have to dig ourselves so deeply into the darkness that the only way out is up. When we stop digging, and look up, we see a tiny glimmer of light up there and know in which direction to move. I once had a vision that I was sitting somewhere out in space looking down on a spiral galaxy. It was massive, with arms spread out wide below me. Some of the arms were bright with stars, and some were dark, as though a shadow blocked them from the light. Someone beside me said, “We’re in a period of light right now, but the darkness will return.” At the time, I could only marvel at the billions of bright stars even though I heard the message and knew it was temporary. Everything is temporary.

          We may be in the dark right now; but this too is temporary. We can change our perspective to understand that light and dark are complementary and that we need both. We will have times when the darkness is heavy upon us, when we feel burdened by it, but that too is temporary. We will have times of jubilation, of joy and contentment, and that is transitory as well. All of it is important—good or bad. All of it provides grist for our mill and pushes us toward deeper understanding of the nature of reality. And this IS reality—dark and light in equal measure. The darkness is not always bad or wrong, and the light is not only good and right—they are equal partners in the evolution of the human psyche. How would our lives be different if we changed our perspective to include both?

                                                  In the Spirit,

                                                  Jane

         

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