everything is made of light and shadow

everything is made of light and shadow
87/100 in 100 days creative challenge, 8/26/09
Golden Fluid Acrylic on paper, 5x8" moleskine

Can it be that it is simultaneous? This light and shadow?

I'm pretty sure it is.

There is no light without shadow, is there? It's the same Earth, whether it is night or day. The same coin, whether heads or tails.

So why are we grasping so hard to every little bit of light and pushing away the dark? Why are we afraid of the dark?

Are we convinced that light is the only good, that dark is somehow evil?

I think I'm afraid of the dark. Afraid I won't be strong enough or that it will never end or that there really are monsters roaming in the night, ready to eat me.

What if I never come out of the dark?

But I've already proven that I can withstand the dark. I've already proven that in the darkness when my eyes are closed, I see true visions.

Maybe it's the embracing of the dark that helps us not only survive, but thrive. Maybe if we accept our own darkness (grief, sadness, loss, fear, poverty, constraint, hunger, anger, dissappointment, loneliness, exhaustion, ______ insert dark here) then we won't feel the need to hang on so tightly to the inevitable dying (and rebirth) of the light.

Maybe if we don't hang on to the light so tightly, then the natural cycle of day and night can continue. And in the dark, we can do what we need to do, unafraid. And in the light, we can enjoy it and not run from the deepest shadows in fear, even as the sun is still shining brightly.