Clarifying Peace
  • The Facts
  • Calling Mother
  • Spiritual Direction
  • Blog
  • poetry, story telling, and prayers
  • Essays and Papers
  • Contact

shadowland

9/27/2011

1 Comment

 
As I was walking one morning, I saw an uneven movement on the curb to my left. Is it a small rabbit or a toad? No, it was the shadow made by my ankles as I walked in the sunlight. In the few seconds required for me to make sense of the shadows, I returned to my calm state.

As shadows are cast upon us, first by the adults in our childhoods, in our communities, and through the ages, we are frightened. Who would know how to approach the shadow of the chameleon in the photo below, if the shadow is all we could see? But once we know it is nothing in itself, only the misshaped form a lizard, we know how to respond.

Evil, like the shadow of the lizard, may appear to be something other than what it is, requiring us to work hard to identify this distortion of life, or God-given relationships. Once named though, we can begin to logically assess our next step.

How have you worked to make sense of the distortions in your relationships? What have you learned to name? Has that work energized you to make changes?

photo credit: National Geographic June 2011
Picture
1 Comment
Sue link
9/29/2011 11:27:35 am

I love this line: Who would know how to approach the shadow of the chameleon in the photo below, if the shadow is all we could see? But once we know it is nothing in itself, only the misshaped form a lizard, we know how to respond.

I was wondering earlier tonight if sometimes our emotions are just the shadows of something that is true. We may find them scary, and yet what is behind them may be much less so, and in fact may elicit our compassion, more than our fear.

Reply

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    May 2023
    September 2022
    July 2022
    May 2022
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    April 2020
    April 2019
    October 2016
    August 2015
    October 2014
    September 2014
    May 2014
    March 2014
    December 2013
    September 2013
    July 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    December 2010
    November 2010
    October 2010
    September 2010
    August 2010
    July 2010
    June 2010
    May 2010
    April 2010
    March 2010
    February 2010
    January 2010

    Categories

    All
    A Beautiful Dress That Fit
    After We Die
    Artesian Well Spring
    Barker Dam
    Be
    Bearing The Responsibility Of Others
    Beautiful
    Body
    Butterfly Girl
    Calm
    Clean Daily
    Confession Of Sin
    Courage And Cowardice
    Couturier
    Dark Horse
    Darkness And Light
    Darkness Cannot Overcome Light
    Dock Gently
    Dog
    Enough And Enough
    Epiphany Work
    Game Of Conversation
    Generous Gifts
    Happy
    Healing Prayer
    Heart
    Held In Balance
    Holy Living
    Hydrofracturing
    Inner Work
    In Time
    I Will Not Carry
    Joshua Tree National Park
    Loss And Discernment
    Love
    Magi
    Making Peace
    Mavis Staples
    Name It
    Not Alone
    Nothing Is Lost
    O Come Let Us Adore Him
    Opportuntity To Persevere
    Orion Magazine
    Peaceful And Lucky
    Peonage
    Praying About Changes
    Rebirth
    Receiving The Gifts Of God
    Rest
    Seeds
    Seen
    Singing
    Sitting In Silence
    Sleeper Awake
    Slow Down
    Song
    Speaking And Listening
    Steingraber
    Strength
    Sunlight
    Telling Your Story
    The Help
    The Iron Thing They Carried
    Thought In The Form Of An Experience
    To Start Healing The Child In Me
    Transcendent Moments
    Transformation
    Trust
    Unconditional Love
    Unspoken Mantras
    Waiting
    Walking On Water
    Words

    RSS Feed