Light and Darkness


Hey there,

I almost forgot to post today and then it suddenly popped into my mind... Weirdly, I remembered to post when I was thinking about the relationship between light and darkness and how greatful I am for the existence they share. It might seem odd to see grateful and darkness in the same sentence, but I think it is a realistic perspective. In different seasons, we experince darkness in the form of discouragement, disappointment, fear, failure and anything else that keeps us locked up in ourselves, unable to interact fully or live freely. To pretend that that is not a part of our lives is to deny a huge part of our existence. What I love about light, however, is that there does not need to be a lot of it for it to make a difference. A little light pierces the darkness and the darkness can never overcome it. I think the hard thing is that sometimes, when we are in a dark place, we indavertently do things that keep us there. Personally, whenever I feel kind of down, I find myself wanting to watch sad movies so that I have a reason to let out the tears that are subconsciously beneath the surface. In the same way, when we feel very discourgaed, we tend to focus on more things that would make us discouraged just because it seems to be a healthy way of processing our feelings at the time. But darkness + darkness = more darkness. While it is important for us to recognise our feelings and trace where they are coming from, as I have said many times before, our actions cannot be based solely on how we feel. And when you're feeling really disocuraged, the best thing you could do for yourself might be to intentionally turn on the lights. I mean that both literally and figuratively. Get up. Turn on the lights in your room. Talk to a friend. Watch a comedy. Write a gratitude list. Intentionally search for the light and when you find it, no matter how dark things might seem at the time, it will be a bit brighter than it was before.

This also made me think about how we could possibly be the injections of light that other people need. We don't necessarily always understand what other people are going through and a lot of the time, I find myself struggling with determining whether certain conversations require me to simply listen or pitch in and offer some advice. But you do not really need to know any of that to be kind to people and remind that them that they are not alone. It does not mean that they will automatically spill their life story or feel better, but I just think that there are too many of us that think that noone cares and that we are alone when really thousands of people could understand.

God bless.

Dera

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