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Dark and Light

January 10, 2007

ph_jan_annapolissunset.jpg

Annapolis Cusp ~ Canon 30d

So you enjoy living in the light, with happiness and stillness. You will only truly appreciate it after you’ve been in the dark. Then you will have true joy and serenity.
~ Unknown

I spent Saturday with a new friend in Annapolis, Maryland ~ the home of the Naval Academy and a lovely harbor filled with sailboats, delicious salt air, tourists, and plebes. The temperature hovered in the mid-70's, which is just too totally weird to even comment on. Despite my fears of global warming and visions of Al Gore mapping out our impending doom, I sure had a wonderful time enjoying what might have been the most beautiful day of the year... in JANUARY, for god's sake! (My winter design... it mocks me!)

I shot the image above on the walk back over the bridge at the end of the day. Yin and Yang is what comes to mind when I look at it, as well as skipping along the dividing line between night and day. I really do love the quote I've paired with it because one of the talks we had later that night touched upon what I've come to believe is a Visual-Voice Creative Truth, which is: The brightest lights are born out of darkness. It's a theme I continue to come back to frequently as I hash out my thoughts on spirituality and life up here. I'm so not an expert at this, believe me, but this I know: butterlies begin as ugly, bottom-dwelling blind worms... muching and tearing away at the landscape. You just can't skip the mud-sucking step... it's a prerequisite to flight.

Now, I know every creature on this earth isn't a butterfly. Some of us seem to go through life without commiting many acts of supreme idiocy. Many of us sail along as if our karma has nary a crack in it. But, for those among us who fuck up and greedily grasp for what we think is oh so swell, or run like little children from the monsters under the bed, our metamorphosis ~ if we choose to create it ~ is all the more spectacular. Butterflies know where they came from, and their grateful flights of fancy really are beautiful for the rest of us to behold.

Sailing through the deepest, darkest waters, if it doesn't kill us, has a way of refining and turning us into creatures whose purpose extends well beyond the self-defeating habits that once defined us. If you know anyone struggling at the moment, or battling an addiction, tell them this. We all taste the bitter, cold reality of darkness in our lives, but there's is a light right over there on the horizon, if you choose to listen to the song of radical truth and loving acceptance deep within your heart.

Posted by susan at January 10, 2007 10:08 PM

Comments

Lovely shot!

Posted by: Anonymous at January 10, 2007 06:07 PM

oh my.....what an awesome shot.

Posted by: rk at January 10, 2007 10:39 PM

Oh sooooo true Susan. It only makes us stronger in the end... all the mud. Just a perfect commentary with that quote and photo. You just make me smile. Hugs to you dearest.

Posted by: samtzmom at January 11, 2007 06:16 AM

Inspiring thoughts, beautifully written and illustrated. Your comment about global warming made me smile too, as you probably have gathered I am very concerned about Global Warming but I am enjoying this mild and flower filled winter and the year before last when we had July weather in November for our holiday in northern Italy, well that was truly wonderful!

Posted by: Crafty Green Poet at January 12, 2007 09:47 AM

Here in the office I keep a framed ideograph of 'Chaos' as interpreted from Hexagram 3 of the I Ching: "Before the beginning of great brilliance, there must be Chaos".

...or as another translation goes, "Before a brilliant person begins something great, they must look foolish to the crowd".

Gentler translations speak of "lateral growth" and "sprouting"...

Posted by: dan at January 12, 2007 04:10 PM

Indeed. I sometimes wonder about people who seem to be so happy because nothing bad has ever happened to them. Do they not remember? Is their life that shallow? Do they ever take risks? The photo is breathtaking. The quote perfect. And your prose is vintage Susan, always searching, always questioning, always wanting to know more. You are wonderful.

Posted by: janet at January 13, 2007 05:54 PM