The Light Within Us

“There is a gravity within that continually weighs on us and pulls us away from the light. Negativity is an addiction to the bleak shadow that lingers around every human form…

You can transfigure negativity by turning it toward the light of your soul.”

- from John O’Donohue, Anam Cara, p.200.

We are often drawn to the darkness within us. The darkness in our lives. Negativity can easily become a life force of its own, feeding off of us. However, the more attention we pay to it, the more we believe in its power, the more it grows and roots itself deeper into our soil.

We must learn to continuously focus on the light, not the shadows. Once we learn to do this, it will be as though the light is shimmering and growing right before us, offering us so much more than the darkness ever could.

The darkness is safe; it shades us from the harsh rays of hope and responsibility, for within the world of negativity and shadow, we can remain closed. We can remain safe.

It is not enough to be safe. It is not enough to survive. There is too much within us, waiting to happen. We have too many dreams, too much soul, too much light to share. We are serving nothing by hiding our selves, by setting ourselves aside, or by allowing something or someone else to control or define us.

It is not enough to be safe. We must be reckless. Every now and then, we must throw ourselves into the wind and take the chance to fly. We are strong, much stronger than we know. We can survive the falls; what we can not survive is the darkness. It steals our light, our energy, and manipulates us into believing we are not brave enough, beautiful enough, strong enough, smart enough, something enough! to fly. When, in fact, we have everything we need to make our wildest dreams come true, right there, inside us.

Our soul is patiently waiting for us to have the strength to be reckless.

To clarify, reckless does not mean you need to jump off buildings and have a ridiculous amount of unprotected sex. True recklessness is allowing the wild, roguish parts of our soul to have their way for a while. To find another job, to write that book, hug that person, and not give a damn what anyone is saying about you. To do it, anyways.

It doesn’t have to be forever. We don’t have to be strong every minute of the day. But we do need to be alive. We do need to take responsibility for our lives. It is not enough to blame the darkness. We all have darkness, and it can almost be assured that our darkness is only a fog, permeating our vision but penetrating nothing. Break through it, and we can see.

Break through it, and we are free.

Reviews

[The Language of Birds]

My sister, my friend, your words are the only flesh I know you by, and so I hope it does not seem strange to say that I love you.

The timing of this piece for me to read was sorely perfect. Bless you. It is well-crafted, but still with that 'roguish soul' to feel like it is the deperate and hopeful graffiti on a cloistered and filthy cement wall, where all of the poor and desperate would read it and take heart, and breathe light where there previously was none...

So much about this, but my heart pounded at, "It is not enough to be safe. It is not enough to survive."

Yes, my sister. I love you.

Thank you for this hope in my own time of shadows.

Love,

JimCD

[Sean Allen]

Well, on this beautiful "brightest" of mornings, this is just what I needed to read as I go off to do battle with the forces of darkness. This is the brightest of mornings by the way, because as the sun was rising this morning, the moon was full as it began to set. This results once in a while as the earth receives the most light possible from the two great lights in the sky at the same time.

[The Rock And Roll Cowbo..]

Wow kara you really are quite an intelligent lady... what you say here is really profound... it is so true that staying in the shadows is so easy cause we don't have to take responsibility for anything, for no one can see when you screw up so you don't have to answer for it and so your character can't grow... if you spend to long in the shadows then you become blind once in the light and don't know how to do anything and not being able to make a impact on this world. The part you speak of reckless really intrigued me, there is nothing wrong with throwing cation to the wind, you may fail 90% of the time but it is worth it for that ten percent when you achieve greatness. You have to fail in order to succeed. bravo my dear friend for such wonderful thinking.