We all have shadows. Shadows happen when ego blocks the light. Our dark side comes out when we fail to allow in the love and light that we are made of. We strive to reach enlightenment which means experiencing increasing periods of light and fewer period of dark. But along the path to personal mastery, we must learn to embrace both shadows and light together as one. Chiaroscuro is a term that describes this beautifully; it is the effect used in artwork for contrasting light and dark.
I decided to spend a few days alone in the mountains this weekend in order to read, write, reflect and knock some things off my to-do list that have been haunting me for a while. I saw this as an opportunity to recharge before the busy spring selling season starts in the real estate business. While I’m up here, I am committed to keeping up with this daily blog.
Today went a bit sideways and I ended up dealing with several unexpected issues rather than tackling my to-do list. Running out of hours in the day, I called my wife back home and asked for some help finding inspiration for today’s post. I often get ideas from my journals which I don’t have with me. She asked if I wanted her to flip through them to see if anything jumped out at her.
The first thing that came to mind was the part in the Stephen King movie, The Shining, when Shelley Duval’s character, Wendy, finds the book that her husband had been working on all winter. Her husband is Jack Torrance, played by Jack Nicholson. The premise of the story is that Jack volunteers to care for the Overlook hotel for the winter. It is set in the mountains and due to harsh winter weather becomes basically inaccessible to outsiders. He and his family will be the only ones on the expansive property and Jack sees this as an opportunity to finish the book he’s always wanted to write. The isolation, the enormous hotel with endless hallways and rooms, and the spirits that also inhabit the space all contribute to Jack’s shadows that come out.
When Wendy opens Jack’s book for the first time, she finds hundreds and hundreds of typewritten pages that simply say, “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy,” over and over and over again. There were plenty of signs leading up to this point that she might have been a tad naïve. This is the moment when she realizes her husband has lost his mind.
I suppose this is where my own shadows enter. I’m up in the mountains reading, writing and thinking, when my wife volunteers to read through my journals. Is this parallel beginning to sound a little creepy? Although, I do have my moments, it’s okay. I’m fine. Promise! Yet, I do sometimes worry that my journal entries and this One Teaching series is essentially saying the same thing over and over again. Well actually, it kind of is, and I suppose that’s the point. We search and search only to find that what we are looking for was here all the time. But for most of us, ego and shadows continue to play their part and so we need a constant reminder to keep letting in the light. Shadows and light can live together as one, as chiaroscuro.
Tomorrow I’ll return home refreshed and renewed. I wasn’t snowed in and I wasn’t gone that long. I don’t think my family has to worry too much about hearing me at the door saying, “Here’s Johnny!”
Photo by Luis Villasmil on Unsplash
