Just read another blog, from another friend, speaking about yet one more experience of darkness. One more person who appears so bright, who turns out to be struggling.

I guess that’s it. When we walk in the darkness, we might forget that, to others, we are a light. So, in this new year, just want to send a little note to my family and friends. Never forget, however sentimental it sounds, it is simple truth: everyone sheds some light. We are each a little light for some other(s) of our relations. And i don’t mean that in the empty way that phrases like ‘we are all special’ can ring.

I mean that as hard truth.

There’s the inescapable thing. We shed light, and that matters. And that’s work enough for anyone. Spent the morning having coffee with another friend, who’s recovering, slowly, from a life-threatening illness. She said it gave her time to face the fact that, as a career artist, she might have wasted her time… but she had to accept, she is who she is, does what she does, and that might not be the biggest thing in the world, but it was too late for her to change, so she found a new peace with it.

I remember this same feeling, many years ago. I nearly drowned, due to a foolish overestimation of my own skills. At last, unable to swim farther, i rolled on my back and talked to God. Not to bargain, i found i couldn’t promise anything; i felt entirely see-through. God, the Great Unknowable Mystery, knew me, and knew i might say anything, but, when the crisis passed, i’d just bumble on. So, i didn’t offer anything. I just asked. Just as i am, can i live? And i was carried to shore.

I’ve forgotten that clarity, over and over, but never entirely. I was told, and have been told over and over, in big ways and small, i am here and so there is something for me to do. Friends, so are we all, here in the Big Ceremony.

Thank you, whoever you are, however deeply or slightly the circles of our lives intersect. And don’t be surprised if you find yourself in darkness – maybe it’s there so you can notice how you, too, are a light.

All My Relations

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