Friday, 1 September 2017

September 1, 2017 Chautauqua


Beth's Ponderings


   Last week we experienced a solar eclipse.  For some locations in the United States, it was a total eclipse, here in Central Alberta the sun was only partially covered, yet at the peak of the eclipse, there was a noticeable dimming of the sunlight.

   While we are now “enlightened” enough as a society to realize that an eclipse is not a catastrophic event that means the world is about to suddenly come to an end, I noticed, leading up to the actual eclipse, lots of comments and concern expressed about the various “shadow” events occurring around our world in the past few weeks.

   One thing that the solar eclipse showed us, is that while the moon may have covered the sun for a moment in time, it had no effect on the sun at all.  The sun continued to shine brightly that day and didn’t dim or hide itself.  The moon, nor clouds for that matter, can really prevent the sun from shining.  Any dimming or hiding of the sun is only from our PERSPECTIVE, it doesn’t in any way reflect reality.  No matter how dark the day, or even how dark the night, the sun continues to shine ceaselessly, and manages to appear yet again in our sky.

   And, it may appear, from our limited perspectives, that the “shadows” are getting bigger and bigger in our world, however, we can’t let that discourage us, or cause us to become so fearful that we stop bringing love, kindness, and compassion to all those we encounter on a daily basis.  The shadows only dim us if we choose to let them.  What is going on around us should not prevent us from bringing our best selves, and best efforts, forward.  If anything, it should encourage us to shine even MORE brightly.    

   I was reminded last week, and shared in conversation with others...the brighter the light shining, the bigger the shadows, so all the shadows are showing us is proof that we ARE shining brighter and brighter as we each bring more light to our corner of the world.


   And it is the light that holds the true power, not the shadow.

Beth


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