Light and Shadow

Take a deep breath.  Good. Now, take another. And one more…slowly…. Relax.

Imagine a hot and sunny day and a long path without shelter.  You’ve been wandering for a while now.  You’re hot.  You’re thirsty.  You want to rest.

Before you, across the way, you see a large tree with overhanging branches casting a large circle of shade beneath its canopy of leaves.  It beckons to you to come and rest.

With a sigh of relief, you settle in and lean up against the rough, cool bark.  It feels as though the tree is embracing you and the leaves begin to sing you a lullaby.

You close your eyes and the dance begins.  A soft slow ebb and flow of light glides across the lids of your eyes.  A gentle breeze and the patterns of light and shadow begin to swirl in intricate patterns. You feel like a stranger in this place where light and shadow are one.  In seconds light is shadow, shadow is light and you lose your bearings.

Steadying yourself seems futile in this frantic dance of light.  And so, you breathe.  In, out, and once again hoping to find an end to the dance.  As stillness approaches, it beckons shadows along with it. The shadows wrap around and shroud out the light.  In their tight embrace, you begin to gasp.  The embrace tightens squeezing out all hope.

You open your eyes on the cusp of evening, the magic hour when it’s neither night nor day, light nor dark.  Frozen in a moment in time.  Frozen beneath the tree, this so-called shelter, this shroud about you obscuring your view. Hope returns.

Step out.  Step out and breathe.  Look.  Live.  Walk.  It will be OK.