Stepping into the Light

A seeker of the light will always have great shadows in their path. 

 As I Lay Pondering: daily invitations to live a transformed life

The woman stood on the slightly raised podium, closed her eyes and soaked up the immense feelings of gratitude. She heard the slight rumble of applause in her head before it rattled to exuberance throughout the meeting room.

Hands in namaskar, she gently folded forward, bowing to the faces who’d spent the last two days listening to her stories while seeking their own wisdom.

“Namaste,” she murmured into the microphone she’d come to love. (“Mike me up like a rock star,” she smiled to think that slightly over 24 hours ago she’d embarked on this particular journey.) “Namaste,” she whispered with a bow as 60 heads bowed back to her.

It’s a powerful and delicious feeling to know you’ve showed up and it mattered for something. It mattered first for her. She’d been told as a child to be polite and stay within the shadows. While those hadn’t been the exact words (especially about the shadows), it had clearly been the message… but she was a seeker of light. She was born to step out of the darkness.

Today, she offered gratitude for all those dark times and the shadows in her life, for without them she wouldn’t have been able to stand before this group and relate to their stories and have compassion for their struggles.

She knew what it was like to hide in a corner after being pushed there. She also knew what it was like to dip her toe into the pool of light… and pull it back again.

She stood in front of the group vulnerably sharing her fears and her triumphs. She offered them tears and laughter. She paused when she became overzealous and she forged ahead even when they looked at her quizzically. She offered her heart and soul and in return she received theirs.

“Namaste,” she whispered with spine aligned and head bowed; a pool of light wrapped around her like a giant embrace as the applause of angels sang in her ears.

How will you dip your toe into the pool of light today? Or embrace your own shadows? What if you wrote your ending first?

This post inspired by my time with the Seabeck Community and  Sarah Selecky’s writing prompt: Write the ending first. Write for 10 minutes.