This snowy February followed a January finale of bitter cold. After starting with a gift of two weeks of mild temps, Mother Nature decided to lovingly “toughen us up” by first sending the Polar Vortex and now, snow. And more snow. We’ve barely reached the month’s mid point, and we are already up to our kneecaps in white, frozen fluffiness.
There are moments I can pause and admire the sparkles shimmering in the sunlight, the swirls that blow around the corner of the house, and the tracks of deer, fox, bunny and squirrel. However, when the snow impacts my life in delays and unexpected events, my thoughts toward Mother Nature are often not so generous.
On this morning, before I shovel myself out and drive up the road, I sit and watch the darkness. If this was summer, the darkness would hamper my ability to see the nearby creek, or the deer in the distance, but now the mounds of white highlight the trees, the shed, the garden. In the dark, there is light.
It isn’t the light our eyes are accustomed to during the day: not the glaring phone screen, nor the LED lights that seem to be everywhere, nor the Xenon headlights that blind us on the highway. It is a soft natural light that allows just enough vision to make ones way.
We experience darkness in life. Relational challenges, financial difficulties and work pressures can seem to tower over us casting serious shadows on our daily life. It can feel dark and relentless. And yet, there is light – after all, shadows can only appear when there is light. In the middle of the shadowland…where is your light?
This week, when you feel caught in the dark grip of stress and struggle, look for the light. Where light is hard to find, stretch your hand out, and grasp another’s. Look for the light together. Darkness is not as scary when we walk through it with others. Both Robert Frost and Nine Inch Nails remind us, “The (best) way out is through.” We need just enough light to find our way.
Holding us all in the light,
Andrea
Andrea Tatley 