I spent most of my life longing for light and running from the darkness... Yet one evening, while standing on the red rock cliffs behind our house, I noticed that the shadow of another cliff was coming to eclipse my own shadow where I stood. It was marvelous watching my shadow disappear into the larger shadow! So marvelous, in fact, so thrilling, that I ran home to the east so that I could experience it again and again and again as the sun set beneath different land forms. By the time I got home, I had been eclipsed perhaps eight times. What was the thrill of this? Well, I think that it was in part due to a new attraction to darkness. I spent most of my life longing for light and running from the darkness. This newfound curiosity about what had once scared me brought so much freedom, so much openness. I have been recently drawn to the work of Rilke that also explores the darkness. For instance, this first line: You, Darkness, that I come fro...
Women's Spiritual Poetry