Darkness is usually a word with a negative connotation. It brings up images of evil, something lurking, sinister motives, mystery, and scary nightmares. In our minds we like things to be black and white, dark and light, bad and good. We separate. We divide. We want to keep those clear lines drawn. But what if we can learn from the darkness? What if there’s some beauty in blackness? What if we can find truth in the mysterious?
Come with me and venture out from the light. Take a step toward the darkness. Let the darkness cover you. Let your eyes adjust, and perhaps you will begin to see more than you’ve seen before. Let the darkness teach you. Let the unknowns help you to grow. Learn within the questions.
Look at the darkness of the past and be open to new explanations. Look at the darkness of the future and learn to be content with not knowing. Go into the darkness of the cavern and explore. Rest in the darkness of the womb and prepare. Fly into the darkness of outer space and whole new galaxies will open up to you.
Hold the mystery close, and you will feel things you’ve never felt before. Hug the doubts, and you will sense new certainties. Close your eyes and listen closely and be amazed by the music of the universe. It might take effort, it might be difficult, it might be scary, but in the end you might understand more of what it means to be alive.
Perhaps this is where we will be transformed. As darkness embraces, it learns to include. As darkness enfolds, it comforts. As darkness wraps you in its shroud, it prepares you for resurrection.
“To go in the dark with a light is to know light.
To know the dark, go dark. Go without sight,
And find that the dark, too, blooms and sings,
And is traveled by dark feet and dark wings.” (Wendell Berry)
“You, darkness, of whom I am born—
I love you more than the flame
that limits the world
to the circles it illumines
and excludes all the rest.
But the dark embraces everything:
shapes and shadows, creatures and me,
people, nations—just as they are.
It lets me imagine a great presence stirring beside me.
I believe in the night.” (Rilke)
Leave a Reply