Light

Slowly I have come to see that within each of us, there seem to be two parts.

One part is light. It is kindness, and beauty, and that warmth that can feel love, and wants to give love too. The other part is shadow. It is the unease we cannot name, the fear, the tightness and guardedness that is suddenly drawn out when we meet certain people, or certain things.

I once read of an idea, that within the heart, there is a part made of pain, gathered over many years. Most of the time, it sleeps. But when you meet certain people, or certain things, it wakes.

I have known times like this myself. In life, one cannot avoid meeting certain people, certain things, that suddenly leave you uneasy, unable to help wanting to guard yourself, to fight, to win. And that feeling is not good at all. It makes you tense, it makes you weary, and it keeps you from sleep.

Later I understood. That shadowed part is, in truth, a very old habit of thought. And it can, slowly, be changed.

At first, I always thought to fight it, to destroy that shadow. But I found that the more I struggled against the shadow, the stronger it grew. Because that very struggle is the thing it feeds on.

Later still I understood, that shadow cannot be removed by fighting it.

It is like a dark room. There is no way to shovel the darkness out, piece by piece. And yet, you need only light a single lamp, and in that moment, the darkness recedes on its own.

Light does not need to battle the darkness. Light need only be there, and the darkness has no place left to stand.

And so I think, rather than spend my strength fighting that shadow, I would rather nurture, more and more, the light within me.

To feel, more, the beauty of ordinary days. To be, more, with people who are kind, and warm. To return, more, to nature, to feel a tree, a breath of wind. To do, more, the things that make me truly happy, and that carry meaning.

Each of these, little by little, is a lamp lit within my heart. And when enough lamps are lit, the shadow slowly fades, and slowly loses its great power. Perhaps it is still there, but it can never fill me again.

This, I think, is the work of a lifetime. Not to destroy the shadow within, but to light, one by one, the lamps of the heart. To let the light grow, more and more, until we, and those around us, all live within that warm and gentle light.

——Marie, Founder of Lyfairs

🌿 A lamp like sunlight through leaves, like the ever-thriving light within us:
Ever-Thriving · The Gordon Gu Collection →