reaching for darkness
“This thing of darkness I acknowledge mine.”
There is so much wisdom in this quote. When I’ve acknowledged my darkness — my faults, my doubts, my aggression, my fears, my guilt, my pain, my worries, all the parts of myself that I’d rather hide — I’ve exposed it. I’ve let the light in so there’s nowhere to hide. I’ve broken its hold on me and its destructive potential. I’ve released life energy that has been trapped by trying to hide the darkness. I’ve shifted the power.
It’s not about beating myself up or even fully trying to get rid of the darkness. It’s about truth. It’s about acknowledging it and respecting it, using it to understand who I am or who I want to be. It’s about being honest with myself about where I’m at so I can get to where I want to go.
It’s in this darkness, in accepting these things about ourselves that we aren’t proud of or we don’t want anyone to know that we discover our most raw form of humanity. We all have the darkness, it’s how you deal with it that matters.
I choose to often share these parts of myself or my undesirable thoughts with whoever will read them because I know I’m not alone in it. Chances are if I’m feeling this way I’m not the only one. There is someone else out there feeling alone in their darkness. And I’m here to remind them, to remind you, and to remind myself that none of us are alone. I share my darkness with you in hopes that it will bring you a little light. You don’t have to share your darkness with me, but do consider exposing it to yourself and being honest with it.
I’ll leave you with another brilliant quote that has helped me reach out to my darkness…
“One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious.”