The brighter the light, the darker the shadow.

The brighter the light the darker the shadow. 

One big theme in my life right now is what I'm calling The Shadow.  By The Shadow, I mean all the things in life that are difficult for me to deal with, reconcile or be happy about.  I had a call this morning with some wonderful people I am mentoring, and my check in for the call was all about this topic and how I've been looking at it, feeling it. 

Because I'm looking at things from the perspective of light and shadow, I'm getting to see how many things in life seem to me to be an expression of what I have labelled as bad, dark, unkind, evil, the parts of humanity that are violent, oppressive, and have a negative impact on other human beings.  

I have watched a few films lately that all find their themes from humanity and history where they have created stories to show the parts of us all that harm others, that treat other beings without respect.  

And I find all this painful.  I have a bodily reaction to things like slavery, violence, rape, injustice, war.  I find myself deeply affected by these things, sensitive to every blow, every tear, every heartbreak.

In my unfolding and discovery of my own humanity, a theme at this time (and probably for ever more) is a wish to integrate this shadow, to not push it away in polarisation with the 'good', the 'kind' and the 'happy'.  

I have been trying to bring these 'darker' things into my awareness so that I can examine the charge I have around them and see if I can bring them closer to me without judgement rather than putting them in a compartment of 'unacceptable' or 'inhuman' - things that, in my opinion, need to be eradicated from the world. 

And this is not an easy job.  I have what feel like pretty fixed views on many things.  But I'm noticing that the stronger an opinion I have of something as 'bad', the greater my fear is of it. And that makes me curious. 

I have heard so many times that what we fear or resist is what appears in our lives, and although I cannot categorically say this is a truth I know, I am willing to see whether it's true through my own experience of life. 

So, I'm adding things up, putting the pieces together and I'm making the connection between the shadow, my fears and where I put my attention in my mind.      

The saying, "the brighter the light, the darker the shadow" showed up in something I was reading earlier and it took my enquiry a bit further.   What if the darkness that I can embrace and accept is proportionate to the light that I can also accept and embrace? What if my rejection of the darkness is also how I reject the light ?

Weirdly this doesn't feel like a very cognitive thing to write about - when I start thinking about it logically, I can't really find any explanation, but I can feel the truth of this enquiry and know it will continue to unfold in me. 

The picture here shows the random horoscope that I read (I haven't read one for yonks) which showed me the phrase.  Strangely enough I felt the validation of my process coming out of OK magazine in the Minor Injuries unit of the hospital where I was all afternoon passing the time because my boyfriend had found a bone popping out of his foot! (he's fine by the way for anyone here who knows him)

Do any of you have any experience or wisdom on the shadow you'd be willing to share to contribute to this contemplation ?  And do you have any serendipitous stories to share about when your unfolding has been validated to you by the universe ?