“G’Quon wrote, ‘There is a greater darkness than the one we fight. It is the darkness of the soul that has lost its way. The war we fight is not against powers and principalities; it is against chaos and despair. Greater than the death of flesh is the death of hope, the death of dreams. Against this peril we can never surrender. The future is all around us, waiting, in moments of transition, to be born in moments of revelation. No one knows the shape of that future or where it will take us. We know only that it is always born in pain.’ “ ~G’kar, Babylon 5~
“When day comes, we ask ourselves where can we find light in this never ending shade?” ~Amanda Gorman~
I believe we all have a darkness within. We can’t know what others darkness feels like, only our own. Most of us never let it out. It is tucked deep within the shadows of our soul and we let it reside there, quietly, undisturbed. But we can’t know the goodness of our soul without knowing the darkness of our soul. Day and night. Up and down. Wave and trough. Black and white. Happiness and despair. Good and evil. Yin and Yang. One cannot exist without the other. Ever. It is the on|off energy pulse of the Universe.
Our country’s soul met at this crossroads. The gates were open and the fear and despair hiding in the shadows was set free, for a time. We saw what we didn’t want to see in ourselves. Felt what we didn’t want to feel. Evaluated thoughts and perceptions and beliefs and reality as we never had before.
And many of us awoke.
Not all, because we can’t have the good without the bad. But we saw what we so needed to see. Felt what we so needed to feel. An awakening. A truth. A rebirth.
There are no easy paths ahead. There is no smooth sailing. Only challenges. But challenges we can fully embrace. Challenges we will face together, head on, with leadership and direction and purpose. We’ve seen the darkness. Now, finally, I believe we’re seeing the light. And the stars.
Nothing in this life is easy. Nothing is guaranteed. We serve at the pleasure of the Universe. We exist simply to experience this infinitesimally small part of the Universe. We are star stuff. We are transient. We are here for a short time in this form and then will move on to something else. Somewhere else. So, we do what we can in the here and now, to lift the veil of darkness around us and around all whom our lives touch. We can do no more.
“Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.” ~Martin Luther King, Jr.~
Namaste 🙏
~jwb~