A candle amidst the shadow...

"Hope is a good thing, maybe even the best of things, and no good thing ever dies."

-Stephen King 
(The Shawkshank Redemption)

This flicker, this flame of hope, spark of divinity casting away shadows into the light of reason and rebirth to be renewed and revisited once again.  

Hope can do this for us just as renewing our faith and spirit can do...  

Can we still be with ourselves and with that phoenix who rises from those ashes?  What comes with this rebirth?  Is it always peaceful?  What if it's not?

Sometimes and often as we find that candle in our dark times, that innocent flame of peace and renewal will ignite with the delicate shell of our current state of the ego to prepare us for major growth.  Now not all major change and growth is painful or earth shattering  or a bonfire of the psyche, but this has been known to happen from time to time...

It is as though we have surrounded ourselves in the kindling of our old way of being and thinking and interacting and this kindling catches fire and gets set ablaze into our being, purifying that which is holding us back from our truest and most sacred self.  

There is always beauty in these moments of utter clarity, though often it is almost impossible to find it amidst the chaos that ensues in our lives.  Room has to made to handle and acquire the proper energetic reception that is occuring.  We are forging a new skin, a new template of our being and at first it is terrifying.

That feeling of letting go and releasing  is usually accompanied by strife and struggle, for the ego's grasp on our reality is a very real and powerful thing.  

This growth and renewal we are experiencing is a trial by fire and the wrong mental attitude and stance will most definitely spiral out to let the ego back in and let it regain its comfortable spot where it is in control of your life.  Therefore this growth is typically accompanied by pains and difficulties.  We must push forward to realize that in this gutter of an experience, there are still stars in the cosmos stretching out into the infinity of space.

It is at times called a healing crisis for the illness or state of dis-ease we are in is one that must flare up and create panic and trauma in order to shake our spiritual and physical state to its core foundations.  This unfortunately can even extinguish that candle which started the process of growth.

Find your candle in the darkness of the char that remains when such a dark night of the soul occurs.  

Find the message.  Step back from yourself and your sorrow and pain and just be a silent witness to what is and to what can be.  Find the peace in each moment, the joy of releasing the old and embracing the new.  You may like what you find there.  It may bring back that once lost playful spirit from childhood, or you may discover that dream of this life you put up on the shelf until the next lifetime.  See the opportunity in your darkness, become your own flashlight by looking for the message, for the blessing hidden in the curse.  There is a silver lining in the cloudiest of days...

Keep hope in your despair and let the sun warm you in the ashes so that you may find those phoenix feathers of every color that had been dulled or sullied by the barrage of suffering in this experience.

May you find the brilliance hidden in the darkest of times...

Know that you are a being of light.

A light for your path...

Just be.