Shadow what?
I’m writing this article considering that each one of us has at least once observed a shadow, of ourselves, other people or objects. I am referring to the physical manifestation of shadow. The one that even a five-year-old can identify. I will let the meaning of shadow be simple, for now. A few days ago my seven-year-old daughter looking at her shadow on the wall inside the room started questioning me out of curiosity. She exclaimed “look at that shadow mom” and instantly put forward her query- “tell me what is shadow”? She continued, “ I know this is shadow on the wall but tell me what thing is a shadow”?
Role of light
That day I explained to her in the most elementary way the meaning of shadow. Throughout my conversation with her a part of my mind started to simultaneously weave a parallel meaning of the word shadow. Here shadow meant not like the one known by a five year old. This other shadow was rather a reflection of our dark side. A much complicated and abstract sense of the word. That intrinsic part of us which we either consciously hide or are rarely aware that it exists. Important to note is that this shadow often resides within each of us. Mostly we don’t like to see it or own it. We don’t like to even discuss about it or think about it.
There is a similarity between the two forms of shadow. They both appear or come into awareness with the presence of light. That is, when we enter the path of light or the light starts to shine upon us.That day as my words kept flowing in an attempt to explain an almost seven year old the meaning of shadow. The much mysterious and complicated parts of the other shadow started to unveil into my consciousness. Storming in my head, knocking my thoughts, almost engulfing my mind.
Simple Shadow
In my straightforward and forever layman style. I started to describe the most easy to understand meaning of shadow to my daughter. And this is what I said- “ when there is light in the room and we stand in front of the wall or bring any object, then shadow of us or that object appears on the wall. The light doesn’t pass through the wall. It spreads all over the wall. When we come in the way of the light, the light doesn’t reach the wall. Instead our shadow appears on the wall. So in other words the shadow appears when we obstruct the flow of light. And remember to be able to see the shadow, there always must be some amount of light present in the room. If it’s all dark we can never see the shadow.”
After my much elaborated description she seemed content enough to go back to continue what she was doing before. But surprisingly enough, my mind wasn’t settled yet. The ripples of inquisitiveness had only started to expand and spread beyond and further. As I started to ponder about the wall, the light and the shadow, my mind started speaking to me. Much like an autopilot mode, here I was observing my own psyche overflowing with a knowing trying to incorporate odd metaphors and comparisons, pushing me to journey deep into the darkness of the shadow world.
Abstract Shadow
And sooner my mind lured me into fabricating some interesting analogies and conclusions. The wall of the room works as a screen, a background that brings the shadow image to the fore, in the presence of the light. Like the wall of the room we all have backgrounds that comprise of our firm believes, our upbringing, social conditioning, cultural attunements, dos and don’ts or rights and wrongs that we imbibe in our personality. All these get accumulated over a period of time, sometimes starting from childhood carried into old age, other times as a result of life events, situations or circumstances.
Larger role of light
As time passes by these get built up into tough and tall walls of our room, our inner world, our persona. To us the walls stands at our back, providing us a strong hold over things, protecting us against harsh conditions. We start to feel inseparable from this wall. But the moment a beam of light enters our room and just as we take a few steps closer to that light, Bang! The light reveals to us our true being. The shadow within our self. It almost forces us to look at that image formed on the wall, which we invariably kept under the carpet all these years .
As the shadow reveals some of us find it difficult to accept it, while some may still try hard to ignore or disown their own shadow. And a few of us even start to runaway, forgetting the simple truth, ‘one can’t escape the shadow’. When we run, the shadow runs alongside. Remember the shadow of a moving car along the highway on a sunny day?
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Shadow and Light
The play of shadow and light will continue as long as the background exists. In a way it is good to have a background or a wall. It enables to bring to our notice the presence of both light and shadow. It is important to know that we all have shadows, which are usually the painful and not so pleasant parts of our being. Those parts of our self or our past that we wish we did not have. That corner of our heart where exist all those tough to deal emotions. The sentiments of remorse, guilt, hurt, shame, fear and many more memories and experiences that we never want to look back at. All this and much more behind the door which we keep locked, never to be opened again.
Love the Light
We do our best to let it remain in one lonely corner of our self. We hope it to stagnate, erode, disintegrate and finally disappear some day. And then finally sealing away the strong iron doors behind, we venture out to start afresh. We strive to become better human beings, without ever having to touch the non touchable part of our innermost self ever again. We start to aspire and move higher on achieving our goals and aiming for success. And on the path to enlightenment we meet the light. It feels good. We get drawn to the feeling of warmth and love that this light carries with it. A treatment so intense for us. Like lightening it strikes straight into the core of our being. We start to experience a greater amount of unconditional love and positive regard. All this and more as a consequence of coming closer to the light. But little do we realise, as we start moving closer to the light. Carrying a background screen at the hind, our shadow begins to appear. The closer we go to the light, the bigger our shadow starts to appear
Embracing the Shadow
The light shines for us to see our own shadow, so we can work out the dark side of us. Work upon that part of us which we left behind. Behind the closed doors, never to be revisited. The advent of Light does challenge us. It gives us the courage to open those closed doors. The light pierces through those parts of us which were still striving in darkness. It’s important to understand why we come in contact with light or love or goodness in the world around us. The light enters our lives as a timely reminder for us to accept our shadow and embrace it. Do you know? It is important to embrace both light and shadow. We are able to identify the shadow due to the presence of light. And the light would never be appreciated if there was no darkness, no shadow formed, if no backgrounds ever existed. Just as some light is needed for the shadow to appear. Same way there has to be some portion of darkness present for the light to be felt, seen and acknowledged.
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My mind can go on and on, but for now, I’ll have to pause here. Shine bright. Be the Light.
