{"id":135,"date":"2013-06-19T18:22:50","date_gmt":"2013-06-19T18:22:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cb257e2c-48da-46fa-98d1-70deeb65aa8d"},"modified":"2013-06-19T18:22:50","modified_gmt":"2013-06-19T18:22:50","slug":"gifts-of-shadow-and-light-a-story-of-beginnings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thewonderchildblog.com\/?p=135","title":{"rendered":"Gifts of Shadow and Light, A Story of Beginnings"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gifts of Shadow and Light<\/o:p><\/font><\/p>\n

A Story of Beginnings<\/o:p><\/font><\/p>\n

By Joseph Anthony<\/o:p><\/font><\/p>\n


\n<\/font><\/p>\n

“To
\nown one’s own shadow is to reach a holy place — an inner center — <\/o:p><\/i><\/font><\/p>\n

not attainable in any other way<\/font><\/i>.” <\/o:p><\/font><\/p>\n

\n

–Robert Johnson<\/font><\/o:p><\/font><\/p>\n


\n<\/font><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/font><\/p>\n

Darkness and
\nthe Young Soul stood together on the shores of a great sea.  They watched silently as the waves spilled
\nover one another in a moiling effort to dance around their feet.<\/o:p><\/font><\/p>\n

The sun hung
\npeacefully in the distance, watching yet not intrusively.  It watched as a father does wondering when
\nhis child will go make something of himself in the world.  The moon too watched from just beyond and
\nabove a range of misty blue mountains. 
\nShe smiled and nodded to Darkness. 
\nHe returned her nod with one of his own.<\/o:p><\/font><\/p>\n

And then Darkness
\nreached into the folds of his cloak and produced a sphere of swirling black
\nfog.  He held it out to the Young Soul
\nwho stared at the roiling ball of blackness with wonder.  It looked alive; like animated India ink congealing
\ninto the form of a ball filled with spirals. 
\n<\/o:p><\/font><\/p>\n

\u201cIs it mine?\u201d
\nasked the Young Soul.<\/o:p><\/font><\/p>\n

\u201cNo,\u201d
\nDarkness replied, \u201cit is mine. I offer to you it as a loan.  Care for it as one would a child, for indeed,
\nthat is what it is.  Hold it until you
\nknow it well and it knows you; hold it until you are one.\u201d<\/o:p><\/font><\/p>\n

Darkness
\nplaced the sphere into the Young Soul\u2019s hands. 
\n<\/o:p><\/font><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s warm,\u201d
\nsaid the Young Soul.<\/o:p><\/font><\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone
\nexpects shadows to be cold,\u201d said Darkness, \u201cowing, I suppose to shade and its
\ncooling properties, but the shadows I give are filled with light.  And light is warm, just as the most
\ncomforting words are warm, not cold.\u201d<\/o:p><\/font><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat
\nhappens now?\u201d <\/o:p><\/font><\/p>\n

\u201cYou will lose
\nit.\u201d<\/o:p><\/font><\/p>\n

\u201cLose it?\u201d
\nsaid the Young Soul as he stared into the piece of the night that roiled in his
\nhands. \u201cWhy would I do that?\u201d<\/o:p><\/font><\/p>\n

\u201cIt happens
\nto every soul.  They forget the gifts
\nthey carry, lose them, if you will, and then spend the rest of their lives
\nsearching for them.\u201d<\/o:p><\/font><\/p>\n

\u201cYou mean I
\nam meant to lose it?\u201d<\/o:p><\/font><\/p>\n

\u201cDestined.\u201d<\/o:p><\/font><\/p>\n

\u201cWhy would I
\npick a Destiny like that?  Why would I lose
\nwhat you just gave me?\u201d<\/o:p><\/font><\/p>\n

\u201cAdventure.  All souls long for adventure; to be able to
\nexplore the jungles of emotions, to sail the rivers of passion; to feel what it
\nis to inhabit a body and to know hunger, to make love with the Muse and the to
\ncreate beauty unlike anything the world has ever seen or heard, tasted or felt.
\n So they accept my gifts and then lose
\nthem.\u201d<\/o:p><\/font><\/p>\n

\u201cThat all
\nsounds tempting, but what does losing your shadow have to do with it?\u201d<\/o:p><\/font><\/p>\n

\u201cIt starts
\nthe adventure.\u201d<\/o:p><\/font><\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t
\nunderstand,\u201d said the Young Soul.<\/o:p><\/font><\/p>\n

\u201cYou needn\u2019t,
\nat least not yet.\u201d<\/o:p><\/font><\/p>\n

\u201cBut why
\nwould you give me a part of yourself knowing it was going to be lost?\u201d<\/o:p><\/font><\/p>\n

\u201cEvery gift
\nis lost at some point,\u201d said Darkness, \u201cthe giver knows that.  The joy comes from knowing the gift has been
\nreceived with grace and is being passed on from generation to generation, heart
\nto heart, and from the knowing that the gift will grow, blossom, multiply, and
\nbecome many gifts in many forms.  That is
\nthe way of all parents and their children. 
\nThe children become lost and then found in the most unexpected places
\nand ways.\u201d  <\/o:p><\/font><\/p>\n

\u201cHow does
\none go about losing a shadow anyway?\u201d asked the Young Soul testing the black
\nsphere\u2019s weight.  It felt as if he was holding
\na ball of air. <\/o:p><\/font><\/p>\n

\u201cBegin lying
\nto yourself about yourself. Once you do your attention shifts and you forget
\nthe gift and then it runs off to begin an elaborate game of hide and seek.  For, like all children, it loves begin seen,
\nand when it\u2019s not being seen, it does all sorts of remarkable things to get
\nyour attention.  And one of the things it
\ndoes is to begin playing.\u201d<\/o:p><\/font><\/p>\n

The Young
\nSoul laughed.  \u201cWell I am not going to
\nlose mine.  I will never lie to
\nmyself.  I intend to live bathed in the
\nlight of truth always.\u201d<\/o:p><\/font><\/p>\n

As he spoke
\nthe sphere cracked open like a black egg and began spilling its black yoke all
\nover the Young Soul\u2019s hands.  He gasped
\nand cried out in fear.  But it was too
\nlate.  The shadow spread around and
\nwithin him like black ivy until it disappeared within him completely.  He shivered as if filled with cold, black
\nice.  The waves receded and seemed to
\nwait in the wings for their next instructions from the moon.<\/o:p><\/font><\/p>\n

\u201cYou said
\nyour shadows were warm.\u201d<\/o:p><\/font><\/p>\n

\u201cThey are,
\nbut lies are cold, and \u2018never\u2019 and \u2018always\u2019 are the coldest of all.\u201d<\/o:p><\/font><\/p>\n

The Young
\nSoul straightened himself and trembled.  <\/o:p><\/font><\/p>\n

\u201cSo,\u201d he said,
\nswallowing hard, \u201cnow I fill a body, is that it?\u201d He spoke as one resigned, yet
\ntrying to summon as much courage as he could to accept the consequences of his
\nactions.<\/o:p><\/font><\/p>\n

\u201cYes, be
\nborn,\u201d said Darkness, \u201cthe adventure has begun.\u201d<\/o:p><\/font><\/p>\n

\u201cHow will I
\nknow where to look for my shadow?\u201d<\/o:p><\/font><\/p>\n

\u201cLook in the
\nthings you truly love and hate.  It will
\nbe revealed in your passions and desires; look for it in your mean criticisms
\nof others for it will be reflected there. 
\nLook for it in your talents–the ones you develop and the ones you see
\nin others but are too afraid to try out for yourself. Search your dreams for it
\nwill unveil clues to its whereabouts there; it will move like a black deer through
\nthe forest of your mind; it will swim like a black fish through your deepest
\nthoughts.  And know this: it can leap
\nfrom you and enter other people just for a moment to look at you through the
\neyes of its host seeing if you can recognize it.\u201d<\/o:p><\/font><\/p>\n

\u201cIt can
\nmerge with other shadows?\u201d<\/o:p><\/font><\/p>\n

\u201cShadows
\nwere born to merge.  It is their deepest
\ndesire.  One day when all of my shadows
\nbecome one and return to me, the world will explode into light and a new heaven
\nwill descend upon the earth and spread like the first, eternal morning of
\nparadise.\u201d<\/o:p><\/font><\/p>\n

The Young
\nSoul turned his face away.  He seemed to
\nbe listening to something only he could hear.<\/o:p><\/font><\/p>\n

Darkness
\nsmiled.  A small vessel approached the
\nshore pushed by the unseen hands of an unseen current.  In the boat sat a woman dressed in a flowing
\ngown of silk, colored like the waves and the foam.  She was singing. In her arms she held a baby.  <\/o:p><\/font><\/p>\n

The Young
\nSoul looked on with wonder as the boat touched the shore.  He turned to face Darkness.<\/o:p><\/font><\/p>\n

\u201cIs it time?\u201d
\nthe Young Soul asked.<\/o:p><\/font><\/p>\n

\u201cOnly if you
\nsay so.\u201d<\/o:p><\/font><\/p>\n

The Young
\nSoul looked at the woman, she looked down at the infant in her arms with all
\nthe love of the Dawn looking at you through your bedroom window.<\/o:p><\/font><\/p>\n

\u201cThank you,\u201d
\nsaid the Young Soul to Darkness.<\/o:p><\/font><\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re
\nwelcome.  We will meet again.\u201d<\/o:p><\/font><\/p>\n

The Young
\nSoul embraced Darkness and then turned, and moved towards the woman in the
\nboat.  He stumbled in the sand and waves,
\nthe first of many stumbles he would make on his journey into and out of
\nhimself.<\/o:p><\/font><\/p>\n

Darkness
\nstood and watched them drift away.  His
\ncloak billowed and suddenly became all wings and feathers and he rose and flew
\ntowards the ever welcoming light.  <\/o:p><\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/font><\/p>\n

Feel free to donate to the Wonder Child Blog, thank you.<\/p>\n

\n

\n
\n
\n
\n\"\"
\n<\/form>\n

 <\/font><\/p>\n

Copyright Joseph Anthony of the Wonder Child Blog<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gifts of Shadow and Light A Story of Beginnings By Joseph Anthony “To own one’s own shadow is to reach a holy place — an inner center — not attainable in any other way.” –Robert Johnson   Darkness and the Young Soul stood together on the shores of a great sea.  They watched silently as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[16],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thewonderchildblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thewonderchildblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thewonderchildblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thewonderchildblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thewonderchildblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=135"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/thewonderchildblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thewonderchildblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thewonderchildblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thewonderchildblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}