How to Glow in the Dark

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times....”
(-Charles Dickens)   ​

This timeless truth was written in 1859 and could be just as true today.
​Or, any period in human history. (Outrunning sabre tooth tigers anyone?....)
​
Life is rarely a cakewalk. 

But it can be so much more than the self-defeating limits in which we unwittingly cage ourselves.  How do you negotiate Self-doubt vs self-trust? Instead of, ‘I can’t' or 'it won’t work’....  How often do you ask yourself,  ‘WHAT IS POSSIBLE?’

What about,​

Magic.     Joy.     Light.

What do these words bring to mind for you? What feelings arise?
How do they dance on your tongue?   Does your ear welcome them?  
Breathe them in.  

What images come to your imagination?
​We need these aspects to settle our frayed nervous systems.

​Light and Dark will always be hand in hand.
What you allow to be stronger within you will depend on a whole lot of forces,
including your context, the toxicity vs the safety of your environment, 
your choices or lack thereof, even what you had for breakfast!

You choose whether to entrain with bitterness from being hurt or whether you commit to healing.

And learning. 

And growing.

It’s a choice whether your heart opens or closes.

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity,
it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness,
it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.” 
― Charles Dickens, (1859) A Tale of Two Cities

These days, if you think that to be happy and content and have a good life, it should be easy and sunny,  then you are going to be challenged, especially moving into fall, more darkness and the 4th wave of the pandemic.   This is one of the things I’m feeling really heavily in my bones right now.   I don’t know about you but, I need to change my mindset.   When I catch these negative thought loops and heavy discouraged feelings, they need attention and self-care.

Since the nights are getting longer, what if the light we need now is a starlight twinkle, rather than a bright sun?

When I was out kayaking this summer, I was enthralled with bioluminescent phytoplankton on a midnight paddle. Have you ever experienced it?
The magical neon blue light flashes against the night ocean as your kayak paddle dips into the inky darkness,  carving your glowing signature in its wake.  
Your own magical presence dancing with the sea’s hidden mysteries.  

This is joy.    This is magic.    This is light.

(‘Bioluminescence is the production and emission of light by a living organism. It is a form of chemiluminescence.
Bioluminescence occurs widely in marine vertebrates and invertebrates, ‘...Wikipedia) 

This is the miraculous in the everyday. The mundane turned on its head.

Yes, some nights the stars are obscured (and it’s discouraging).  Even a luminous full moon can be hidden by dark stormy clouds, and those days we have to go inward and incubate.  You have to really explore and discover who you are and what you are going to choose, despite the pain, the reckoning, the proverbial dark night of the soul. These times require you must recharge your own light with self-compassion.  

And through these deep challenges, you become resilient and better able to ground yourself and to feel joy and contentment in your being and in your life despite what is happening around you. Despite losing cherished love ones.  
Despite negative coworkers and parking tickets.  
Despite the weight of the world.  Despite it all.     

That is when you find that joy is actually sweeter, brighter, lighter,  more magical, because of the darkness.   Not in spite of the darkness.

The reason light works in a photo is because of the shadows,
the dark contrast, the dimensionality, not just the beautiful light.
We praise the light and ignore the shadow, but both are required.

Don’t hide from what scares you, don’t shun what’s dark and spiteful and lurking within you,  it just wants attention. It wants to be noted, it needs to be recognized as the messenger it is for you.  Envy,   Anger,   Fear. The messenger that taps you on the shoulder so you turn and look toward the light.

What if your shadow is also scared of the dark
and needs your help?

So where ever you are on your journey, whether magic seems like a distant concept, or joy isn’t something you’ve connected to for a while;   Consider how different it would feel through the darkness to just shine your own starlight.

If that's too much of a stretch right now and you’re not there yet,  then carry a flashlight,  and let it guide you until you have enough energy in your own battery to begin lighting your path again. Check-in with your own compass. 
Then track your north star.   This is how you strengthen your voice.

For me, Magic has weaved it’s way through a sorrowful summer.  Even with personal grief and loss as an accompanying shadow, light is present and joy visits daily.
A midnight paddle,  dancing outdoors under the full moon.

Abracadabra, literally means, “ it will be created in my words’’--so go cast your spell, and speak your truth.   This is how you strengthen your voice. 
Create your  own magic, it is within you to do so.

You are stardust.  Literally. *