Lifted out of my darkness, I found the LIGHT

4/17/12

On a crowded flight to Washington, DC. In a window sit inthe exit row. Staring out the window at the dark night sky.

We're flying low altitude tonight. And the city lights below us are both visible and mesmerizing. There are so many tiny lights. Shining through the darkness. As I sip my hot tea out of the small, styrofoam United Airlines cup, I can't help but think...

I am in the light.

I can breathe. For the first time in weeks...months really. I can pause. Sit. Stare at something bigger than myself. And simply soak it in. I can rest.

Sure, there are a million things I should have done before taking off that I did not get around to doing. My pre-trip to-do list has more than a few lingering items. A toke home final exam to complete. Emails for work to send. Phone calls to make. Term papers to write.

But up in the air above the world...I feel a million miles away from it all.

I see all of these twinkling lights below me. Tons of them. Tiny little dots. Shining through the dark night sky.

I have been in darkness. Surrounded by it. Deeply embedded in it. Trapped by it.

My own unique kind of darkness. Categorized by stress. Pressure. Chaos. Expectations. Deadlines. Racing. Rushing. Going. Never stopping. Sleep-deprived. Unhappy. Unsatisfied. Un-full.

That has been my own darkness. A season of darkness. Which to me, for so long, felt unending.

Stuck in the darkness. Thinking about how much I hated it. Focusing on its presence. I saw it everywhere around me. With no end in sight.

On the ground, all I saw was darkness. The light, which was always there. Everywhere. Shinning brightly...was too distant for me to see.

But up here in the sky, staring out of this small window...

I see light. So much light. Shining in the evening sky.

Up here...

I can breath.
I can pause.
I can forget what I have to do.
Let go of what I didn't do.
Because I once again...

See the light.

The light never left me. It was always there. But I was simply too caught up, too stuck, too deep in my own creation of darkness, that I could not find it.

Out this window, there is obviously more darkness than light. The whole sky is pitch black. But up here, you can't help but stare at the tiny city lights. You don't notice the black sky. Your eyes move directly to the little specks of light coming through it.

We are always in the light.

We often get too stuck in our own creation of darkness to see it. But it is there. Always.

We simply need to be lifted out of our darkness long enough to change our perspective.

So that we can see
the beautiful
bright
never-ending
always shining

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