Moon Dancers

Moon Dancers, a photo by paynehollow on Flickr.

Whether it is to our liking or not, we will find ourselves in darkness a full half of our lives. For some of us, maybe more.

[And let me be vague here: I'm speaking primarily of that chasm that separates a physical day and a physical night - although if you can find some metaphorical reasoning here worth considering, then consider, away.]

We can - and many do - choose to curse that entire blackened half of our lives. We can choose to spit on it, despise it, fear it, despair of it, dread its daily return... but I have to think that it makes some certain amount of sense to embrace that solemn darkness and find what strength and hope it may offer, for its own sake.

Can't we find a peace that can come only in the darkness, the grace of rest undisturbed by bright, relentless, piercing light?

Can't we find adventure that can only be found in the black night - the joy of carefully walking a path not by sight, but by touch and sound, smell and taste... stepping slowly down a night-covered path, feeling cautiously (and with a certain nervous excitement) with our feet for roots that might trip us, searching for a breeze on our cheeks, listening for a rustle of leaves and maybe just the hint of light from a cloud-covered moon and pin-pricked stars to give us a clue as to which way to go?

Can't we find comfort, even in the cold and unwanted darkness, despite its inconvenience, despite its gloom?

I don't know, I don't know. I do know it's easier to say "embrace the darkness," while I sit clothed in lightness.

But maybe the very challenge of embracing the dark and accepting the limitations imposed upon us by that Shroud which Obscures... maybe that challenge is something not only to be painfully endured until it has passed, but to be loved for its own sake?

I don't know. I just don't think I want to wish away half my life.

Says the fella thinking in the light of day.