I can feel my shadow.
She rests in the long bones of my arms
and the soles of my feet,
a familiar, comfortable weight.
A ray of sunlight casts her from me
in sharp relief,
appearing like magic, seemingly from nowhere.
But even when she’s not visible,
my shadow is always with me,
always here.
She is not some two-dimensional, flat thing,
but a deep, ancient and substantial Being.
Watch as a meandering bee
on her search for honey-sweet nectar,
passes in and out of the shadows
of all her floral companions.
Notice the group of deer in the foothills,
seeking relief from the August sun's heat,
step in and become fully enveloped
by the depths of the aspen groves shadow.
If shadows are flat,
how can we be in them?
For my part, I know my shadow
to be my own personal shard of the darkness,
of the Great Mystery
that resides in the Unseen -
not something to be feared,
but embraced and welcomed
as a sister, as a twin even,
to the light of our shared Spirit.
She is a teacher and a friend.
Without shadow, we have no form.
She relays our own existence back to us
in a way that nothing else can,
she serves as a reminder
of our own unique Magic
and our innate connection to all Creation,
both in darkness, and in light.
xx
