Many of us are shadow-jumpers. We jump away from life’s
difficulties with various techniques: self-distractive behaviours, wishful
thinking, feigned positivity, the spiritual bypass.
With so little evidence
that the shadow can be converted into light, we opt to float above our lives.
And many of us are light-jumpers.
We jump away from life’s pleasures with
various methods: perpetual pessimism, self-sabotage, emotional armour, the
materialism bypass.
With so little evidence that joy can be sustained, we avoid
the possibility altogether. I call the healthy in-between that is, the capacity
to hold both shadow and light at once.
Except in truly unbearable situations,
we stay with the shadow until it transforms. And we submerge in the light when
it beckons, strong enough to endure disappointment, open to the possibility
that the light will grow stronger over time.
Let’s stop substituting avoidance
for reality.
We don’t know how long we have- let’s be here for all of it.
We have many shadows, and layers of shadow.
Embodiment in
the last piece and it is crucial we look those shadows right in the eye and
take a look at them. Especially, looking at the dogmatic judgements we have
around them.
Loving who we are fully allows us to love others. It is a rare
thing that we meet people who love themselves fully that way.
Therein lays the
genius that is us and tuning into and loving that, embodying that in our human
selves integrated with our divinity, is how we rise while remaining firmly
grounded in the life we are here to live.
This includes opening ourselves to
others who are not like us and loving them as we wish to be loved, darkness and
Light.
That is the last piece of the Embodiment piece...the opening and
embracing of others and the entire world in absolute love.
Becoming an island,
as many now choose, is not growth, but classic avoidance.
You cannot rise that
way.
This becomes an unhealthy shadow of its own.
ps/smph
