Storing shadows in the dark

"Storing shadows in the dark"

It is an image conjured up by Barbara Brown Taylor in her newest book, Learning to Walk in the Dark.  Conjuring up images is the mark of a good author; putting together words to capture was is usually a fleeting glimpse of a truth lying just beyond our grasp, an image that will raise more questions and carry more weight than the mere words suggest.

"Storing shadows in the dark..." we've all done it....stored shadows that frightened us, but were only and always shadows.  From the beginning we were certain there were monsters under the bed, or in that closet with the door ajar (when it turned out that it was just your white sweater hanging lopsided from a hanger).

Once when I was a teen, I was babysitting for a family that had just moved into their home.  They hadn't hung any of their curtains yet, so as the night pressed in, the windows became a house of mirrors that only reflected back my own image.  I became convinced that there was someone lurking in the dark....and I became frightened to the core.  My father graciously left his pinochle hand to walk the 4 doors down the street to check it all out and reassure me there was no one out there waiting in the dark.  It was just me.

Can you see the humor, maybe even irony in all that?  (I'm not sure it's irony because I am fairly convinced that I don't completely grasp that concept).  I became frightened of something lurking in the dark because all I could see reflected back to me was.....myself!  Each time I passed a window, there I was, scaring the wits out of me.

What, exactly, was it about myself that I found so frightening?

What kind of darkness was in me that was so threatening?

What was it that I couldn't confront?

Why couldn't I find comfort, assurance, even ease with an image of myself?

I had all kinds of shadows stored in the darkness of that night, perhaps even stored in the darkness within me, that place I didn't know but was fairly certain contained some unattractive parts.  

See what I mean?  A good image raises more questions than it answers.  What questions will you carry into the dark, and what can you learn there?

So much to think about.


[You might want to pick up a copy of Taylor's recent book and get ready to read it through, several times.  It is a journey into the dark....and an exploration of what can be found there. It is also the primary source for our women's retreat coming  up  in April. ]