Listen to this article!
We choose what to do with our shadow. Will it lead us, or will we show it?
Our shadow
This picture made me think of shadows.
Sometimes, when we surround ourselves with complicated situations, people, illnesses, or loved ones, this becomes very overwhelming even for those who practice meditation and do every day de-escalating and have other skills.
To disconnect entirely without it having some effect on you can be challenging for some people. When you care about the people around you, it can be challenging. Sort of like the shadow that lives with us and is forever there even when we don't see it.
So I decided to take a few days and not post and take some necessary time and re-evaluate myself. Meanwhile, I was outside. I decided to take a selfie, and the sun was hitting, so I thought I had taken a good picture (sigh)
When I looked at the picture, I observed it before deleting it, and I said, "Wow, look at that; that is my shadow," and then I decided to stay in the same position that I was at and turn the camera around and then that's when it hit me.
I said, “Wow, what a beauty."
When I said “wow,” I didn’t mean wow about the jetski (although it is beautiful and I have ridden it a few times with my cousins). (Chuckling)
But it was “wow” on how incredible it was that by standing in the same position and just flipping the camera, the site changed in such a way. But then I thought, “hold on…. my shadow is still there” I just chose to look towards another way, so it is no longer an impediment for me to see the beauty of it all, just like the effect of a reflection.
That day I said, “I’m booking an Airbnb because I need to evaluate and work on bettering myself as a person so this way I can give and write from my heart and help others that might be battling with the same issues and cannot honestly and truthfully overcome this".
I used to sweep all of my emotions under the bed and always say, “everything is fine” meanwhile, I was dying inside and crying emotionally for help, but I had no one to turn to many times in my life. I went to Costa Bela in Isabela, Puerto Rico, and might I say that this place was heaven for me. Everything was exactly what I needed. That is the picture taken at the beginning of this blog, and this place helped me culminate and understand this shadow lecture and find some answers within myself. While being there, I took various pictures, and this particular picture grabbed my attention. Why? The shadow is with me even when I cannot see it.
So I took another look at this tree and everything around it and said, "Mitzy, sometimes, although we love the people around us and give them all kinds of advice, we have to realize that they will be like our shadow."
They will decide how they want to be seen. If it's in a progressing way, if it is as a leafless tree shining even thru the blazing heatwaves of the sun, or thru the reflection of what is seen thru the glass of a car or possibly hiding thru their own darkness of pity, illness, lack of motivation to continue fighting, excuses and or laziness. Will the shadow in our lives lead us or bring us down?
Or do we fight every day to stand tall like this tree and decide to be seen even through our surroundings? Might be tough to walk on, or it might take us a lot of work and self-discipline to get to where we want, and to what we deserve?
Will we decide to turn the view from our present problems and look for solutions by taking a 175 turn and seeing what lies around us? Instead of the situation, sorrow, death, illness, finances, evolution, and changes occurring in our day-to-day? The decision lies in every one of us. It is our choice to shine or lie behind the shadow of our daily life.
The decision is ours.
Mitzy Coreano
The simple writer
