Anyone who knows me knows I am an eternal student, perhaps a little on the nerdy/perfectionist side. I want to know it all, do it all and get it all right. I want to do good work and live in the light.
That is a noble and seemingly nice idea but what does that really mean? There is a certain distraction in learning new things that keeps me from focusing on what I already know, which doesn’t allow me to develop and work on anything to the point of true mastery. It’s the “Jack of all trades, master of none” concept that keeps me spinning my wheels in some ways… But it also helps me draw conclusions across many seemingly different subjects.
The concept that keeps coming to me in all my many areas of study is the “light”.
When we are talking about art, my first true love, I had to learn how light interacts with and reflects off our subject matter. Light reflection effects various colors in painting, sculpture or even interior design. Then the science of photography or video exposures is all about light. We even need to study the gallery lighting for display of any artwork or performance and even our studios require proper lighting to get things right.
When we get into the world of technology and computer screens, they are emanating blue light which we must beware of and even protect our eyes with special glasses so as not to disrupt our brain chemistry.
If we seek to learn about the science behind health and nutrition we find that sunlight is of upmost importance for our metabolism to help our bodies understand we are not stuck in a winter famine with little to no sunlight, which can cause our bodies to store fat as a protective layer.
Sunlight is also the ultimate life force of our planet, not only keeping our planet at the proper temperature to support life but also the photons that feed each plant through photosynthesis is one of the main elements that become our food. Whether we eat plants directly, or animals that eat plants, we are literally all eating sunshine in various forms up the food chain.
We can take the concept of light another step deeper into the realm of religion, spirituality and mysticism. Almost every world religion or belief system has some concept of God, angels or “energy” as a central power in connection with the light.
The light is often a symbol of goodness while darkness may symbolize the evil forces, but we must acknowledge the duality that is present in all of our existence. We cannot know light without the dark, we cannot know day without the night. Same goes for man and woman, pain and pleasure, joy and sorrow.
It is the contrast that shows us the power of one in comparison to the other. That is why we must come to terms with the darkness as well. We cannot shun the less than perfect “dark” sides of ourselves and expect to feel whole. We also cannot wallow in that darkness and expect to feel anything other than depressed.
Much like all of nature, we humans must also find balance. We must embrace the darkness while it is here and then rejoice when the light of dawn returns once again as it always does. We must see the hardships and yet celebrate the small steps that will take us beyond those struggles.
We are not victims of the darkness. We are survivors who are meant to balance the dark when we shine our light. We overcome each difficult situation to make us stronger, smarter and better equipped for whatever the next challenge may be. We may need to help others with the lessons we learned previously, or use our past experience to figure out a new solution when unexpected problems arise.
Whatever struggles may present themselves, I am convinced we are here to tap into the power of the light within each of us. We use this light force to transform and ascend.
We may do so through expressing an art form or being mindful of our nutrition. We may use our religion or meditation to tap into our inner light. Whatever your preferred technique may be, if everyone seeks balance in their own life, they will eventually help uplift others around them, sending vibrations out into the world on an exponential level to help balance our entire universe on some levels we cannot fully comprehend.
We are not slaves of the planet earth, we are warriors of the light here to do something special. We are here to balance the forces of darkness by shining our own light from within.
So…. How will you shine your light today?
