Darkness and Light

Sometimes I get up during the night and sit in the dark.

I wonder what it must have been like before we learned about electricity when our only light was from the sun or from flame. Now we are surrounded by bright light, light that overwhelms the light of the stars in the night sky. We obliterate darkness lamps, headlights, flashlights, the glow from so many screens, even cell phones that light up. It is hard to even imagine what it was like when lighting our lives took so much more effort than flipping a switch or pushing a button.

Lighting the darkness gives us many gifts. What does it cost us?

Electricity has allowed us to fill our nearly silent world with sound and make it a challenge for us to find silence. I wonder whether darkness is the visual equivalent of silence.

We need silence to pay attention to our deepest selves, to hear ourselves. Do we need darkness to appreciate our deepest selves, to see our true selves? Can we really become enlightened if we do not spend any time in the dark? Would we recognize light if we were not acquainted with the dark? What is the relationship, the rhythm, that balances darkness and light?

Darkness is where I think my deepest thoughts, and also where I rest and sleep. Maybe those deep thoughts are like the stars; always there but usually washed out by the lights we build to drive away the darkness. Maybe that rest is always available to me, whenever I tap into the depths of peaceful darkness within me.

How do you balance light and darkness for yourself?

Will you take the time to connect with the darkness today?

[Image by Per Ola Wiberg ~ Powi]