This Dark Night

"In the middle of our life journey I found myself in a dark wood.

I had wandered from the straight path.

It isn't easy to talk about it:

it was such a thick, wild, and rough forest that when I think of it,

my fear returns...

I can't offer any good explanation for how I entered it.

I was so sleepy at that point that I strayed from the right path."

Dante, Inferno, Canto I

We all have our dark nights. We don't talk about them much. People don't know what to do with darkness. It makes them uncomfortable.

So we traverse them alone... which can be a mean journey.

But it is important to remember ~ it is a journey.

During my current wanderings in the rough forest, I happened across a copy of Thomas Moore's "The Dark Nights of the Soul ~ A Guide to Finding Your Way Through Life's Ordeals". Sweet serendipity finding this luminescent spark.

The dark night is a space we shun. We must be emotionally deformed to ever traverse here. Why else do they make Prozac and Paxil and Ativan and Xanax???? It is a wrong state that must be corrected. But not according to Friar Moore.

The dark night is natural. Organic. The minor keys amidst the symphony of bright majors.

"The dark night serves the spirit by forcing you to rely on something beyond human capacity. It pushes you to the edge of what is familiar and reliable, stretching your imagination about how life works and who or what controls it."

"During the dark night there is no choice but to surrender control, give in to unknowing, and stop and listen to whatever signals of wisdom might come along."

A valuable lesson for this particular control freak. Me thinks that the current sadness, trial, loss, frustration that I am experiencing is divinely ordained to break me of my unfortunate control addiction.

Moore asks us to imagine that our dark mood, or the external source of our suffering, is like a large living container in which we are held captive.

You are in the belly of the whale. The beast may be an illness, unemployment, financial difficulties, divorce, grief over the loss of a loved one, or a mixed bag combo of any of them. It has swallowed you whole and you are submerged into the depths.

In your isolation you do not realize, that the beast still swims. It is moving, carrying you somewhere, most likely to where you really need to go.

I hesitate to share my dispatches from the belly. It is always a challenge to hit "publish" on these posts. But Spirit tells me it is important. Because someone ~ or many ~ are wandering in their forests, or journeying through the night sea, and this could be their match.

Namaste,

C H E Z

Comments

[Sandy]

OMG, brilliant! First time visitor, and here to stay. This post could not be more pertinent, especially about surrending my control...
THANK YOU!!!!

[Barb]

Yes, there are others out here, wandering our own dark forests...I am one of them...and I'm so glad you did (and do) hit that publish button. It makes me feel not so alone.
Peace & Love,
~Barb~