A dark embrace

Acceptance of what is is an embrace of life in all of its richness of color...  

Be those colors shaded to darker hues or lightened to pastels, all of our experiences in life have enriched it to be the colors we perceive.  The issues that arise in our life, be them physical, emotional or spiritual will remain persistent and continue to fester and injure us more and more if we cannot grasp their value and place in our perception.  This blocking we create from the denial of our true selves is so detrimental to our being that it will even create illness and dis-ease. 

What we run from chases us, and what we hide from searches for us...  

When people cannot embrace all aspects of themselves, they become trapped in the event, time frame or mental state which they are trying to avoid.  Its as though our spirit has a bookmark in the timeline novel that is our life and when we refuse to turn the page or read the whole excerpt, it saves our space until we do.  Unfortunately saving your space causes you to become mentally and often physically stuck there as well.  I have seen many people so stuck in a particular event or time period that they miss the beauty and wonder that is right in front of them. 

Now not all of these shadows are self-inflicted, though a fair amount are...  

No child asks to be abused, and no spouse asks to be cheated on or mistreated.  (On the soul level we all choose our experience, but that is for another discussion) People can overcome these setbacks and devastations if they can find their inner courage to completely face the issue or fears and move through them.  This is by no means a one step easy process, it can take years or lifetimes for some of us, but it can be done.  

The first and most imperative rung on this ladder of healing is accepting what is and what has been... 

It is acknowledging where we have come from in order for us to take those steps forward.  It is not letting ourselves become destroyed by what can best be described as our “acomodador,” as Paulo Coelho describes in his book, The Zahir, that will give us the power to move on and grow from the experiences of our lives in a positive way.  In The Zahir, Coelho quotes from a book called Magical Practices in Northern Mexico which describes the concept:

“The acomodador or giving-up point: there is always an event in our lives that is responsible for us failing to progress: a trauma, a particularly bitter defeat, a disappointment in love, even a victory that we did not quite understand, can make cowards of us and prevent us from moving on. As part of the process of increasing his hidden up powers, the shaman must first free himself from that giving-up point and, to do so, he must review his whole life and find out where it occurred.”

Rising up and being with ourselves in our point of accommodating, or point of becoming stuck in our ego into being complacent or stopping to evolve or grow is the best way to let go of that trauma. It is the first leap to overcoming all odds.  This reviewing of ones life is a major aspect of what Jung called, the shadow work.  It is a first step in renewal and rebirth if one is being consumed by their acomodador.

Let us combine our efforts to help embrace our shadows so that we may again become whole.

We will stitch them back to our feet as our hero Peter Pan has done.

Watch Peter chase his shadow down here...

Light for your path...