Dancing with the Dark

We’re in it.

The darkest month of the year is here in the Northern Hemisphere.

The days are shortening. The skies are often gray. The trees have lost their leaves. Light and color are disappearing from the earth.

The island where I live doesn’t have any streetlights.

When it’s dark, it’s dark.

The season of light and color is so long and magnificent that I get swept up in it. I forget about the dark season.

Even though I understand intellectually that we cannot know light without dark, warm without cold, joy without sorrow, movement without rest, my body responds with a different intelligence.

Each afternoon when the darkness begins to descend, I notice fear arising in my belly, my energy drops and I feel disoriented as if I’ve lost my footing.

Where am I?

I shudder and try to remember to breathe.

 What if, rather than push the darkness away, turn on the lights and pretend it doesn’t exist, I chose to be with the darkness?

What if I chose to give each of these uncomfortable feelings some space to exist, maybe even befriend these feelings?

Last night I decided to step out into the darkness.

Without visual orientation, I began to notice my other senses becoming more acute. Each footstep, the sounds around me, the scents of the cooling earth, the trees and the air drew me into the present moment. Every feeling and sensation was important.

As I walked with curiosity and compassion for all my experience, I noticed that my comfort level began to shift.

My feet began to find the ground more easily. My breathing slowed to a more rhythmic pulse. I began to hear the soft rustling of night creatures and felt grateful for their presence.

Might the darkness hold long forgotten gems?

I’m beginning to see in a new way and

meet my Soul Self by dancing with the dark.