Clipping #8: Your Light

My daughter wrote a book that includes 366 notes titled What If?* This is number 120: WHAT IF in exploring our shadows, we discover our light? We are all yin & yang. Both parts want love. Where do we avoid sharing love with ourselves? Today, shine love & light on our scary shadowy places.

Her challenge to “shine love & light on our scary shadowy places,” got my attention. Most of us have places in our lives in which love and light are missing or faint. I have mine and probably you have yours. As I write this I am mindful of the recent loss of my wife of more than 60 years. She received excellent care in her last days of decline and I am lucky to have been able to be with her several times each day. When she was responsive, we shared memories, music, readings, and brief chats. I related to her essence and took each day as an opportunity to make connections.

It has impressed me that in spite of all that I lost, I loved my wife at a deeper level than ever before. This keeps me going, but the shadow of her decline makes seeing and living in the light that has illumined our past a challenge. That light has dimmed and I feel a shadow over that part of my life. So, how do I shine light in that shadow?

As best I can, I surface the good memories of our life together and refresh the joy of those memories. As best I can, I let the love that still shines illumine the dark places, and I make every day thanksgiving and allow my prayers to reinforce that. And, as best I can, I ponder the ways that hope can help me to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

*Footnotes: Liz Stubbs, OUR BODACIOUS YEAR of LIVE-ing WHAT-IFs! available on Amazon.com.