where there is light, there is shadow.

We recently moved from the East coast to sunny Colorado. I am so amazed at what this increased light means to me and my body. The bright sun is really wonderful, and my mood is better, I am outside more, I drink more water, move more, feel healthier, and am feeling other unforeseen benefits to more sunshine.
Also, our move involved redoing our lives, redoing our budget, our work and jobs, all this has shed light on what is truly important to us.
I have also been learning that when light is cast strongly, shadows are also more powerful. In a recent weekend of shamanic work, we talked about the natural balance of shadow to light, and that when we see things more clearly by becoming "enlightened" that the shadows in our lives will be stronger as well, and sometimes the shadows need processing, and we need help understanding the darkness that is also part of us.
This last weekend we went camping in Moab, Utah, a very beautiful place of high desert, gnarly trees, red sandstone eroded by winds, lizards running across the sand, rocks of amazing and fantastic shape.
We hiked in Arches National Park, and saw natural sandstone arches and towers of fantastic shape and color.
I hiked to a cave, saw a million stars, looked into the fire for long hours, wished I had a shower.
Camping is lovely in that being out in the wild makes you really really appreciate running hot water, a bathroom, a fridge. Again, casting light on something makes the shadow stronger, and this only helps us see more.
I am learning to embrace shadow as well as light - both work together to make the whole more perfect.


"If instead of a figure you put the shadow only of a person, you have found an original starting point, that strangeness of which you have calculated." --Paul Gauguin