For me, finding hope in the darkness is not about wanting the darkness to go away or stop. It’s about learning to find my way within it.
For whatever reason, darkness doesn’t—hasn’t—frightened me the way it seems to frighten others.
Maybe it’s because I experienced a lot of it in my childhood, and through it I found my path. Maybe it’s because I’ve always been attuned to the shadow creatures (ghosts, spirits, shadow hunters, dark angels), and I feel much more like a shadow-working lightworker than a light-working one.
Or maybe it’s because I’ve always known that dark is the same as light. Just the other face of the same coin.
Either way, I know most people are looking for the light at the end of the tunnel. The faith before the fail; the rain after the heat wave.
The way to escape the pain once and for all and move on …
But in those times when we want the pain to stop, the darkness to end, and the light to (finally) shine down upon us once more, this poem reminds me of the true purpose of darkness. And the real, true, and only way to find the light: within the dark.
I love this poem by Emily Dickinson.
I hope it also brings you comfort and clarity.
We grow accustomed to the Dark –
When light is put away –
As when the Neighbor holds the Lamp
To witness her Goodbye –A Moment – We uncertain step
For newness of the night –
Then – fit our Vision to the Dark –
And meet the Road – erect –And so of larger – Darknesses –
Those Evenings of the Brain –
When not a Moon disclose a sign –
Or Star – come out – within –The Bravest – grope a little –
And sometimes hit a Tree
Directly in the Forehead –
But as they learn to see –Either the Darkness alters –
Or something in the sight
Adjusts itself to Midnight –
And Life steps almost straight.
with love,
Belinda
