What Is Eclipsing Your Light?



We had an amazing eclipse season this year. The world, and especially North America became very aware of one in particular on August 21st that went across the middle of America. Thousands of folk descended on the areas where the eclipse was in totality; across mid-America, and millions watched it from afar, from telescopes, and with specially made glasses. The last time such an eclipse impacted us in this way was over two hundred years ago. An eclipse eclipses some of the light or takes some of the light. If we look at this symbolically, what takes away some of our light?

 We all have a spirit and soul and body. It is our soul that gives life to our bodies and which informs our bodies. We often don't realize how much we are feeling or even what we are feeling until we get a message from our body such as a stomach ache, a headache, hip pain, neck pain, shoulder pain, etc. In the Jewish faith, we often think that every one of us has a spark of God within us and all together, all of our sparks are unique and make one. Our soul is our essence, our reason for being and living. We all have different strengths and weaknesses, different gifts and wounds. We have a light within us. This light, if we listen to it, makes us who we are and guides us and informs us and enriches us. Through our early life experiences and our genetic and behavioral inheritances, most of us have given away pieces of our light. Maybe we had parents or siblings or teachers who were triggered by us and threatened by us. Maybe we had very wounded caretakers who couldn't handle our light. Whatever the reason, in order for us to survive in this world, we thought or felt we had to give up something of us, and some of our light to get along.

 What this looks like in life is not being able to express our needs for fear of someone getting angry at us or not being there for us so we stop expressing them. We could even then bury them so deeply that we don't even know what our needs are until we find us getting angry at us or someone else for no apparent reason, for example. Or, we feel like we can't be who we feel inside we really are because is we are ourselves, someone we need won't like us or be there for us. Or, we can't be children because our parents can't handle children so we had to keep some important parts of us under wraps. We might only figure this out when we find us getting frantic or upset for no big reason. Or, we can't let us succeed in life, or we can't let us fail without feeling terrible about us, and so on and so on. So, one little step at a time, without us being consciously aware of what we are doing, we let go of some little piece of light inside of us. The thing is, the light is still there waiting for us to bring it back and light us up; it is just hidden, just like an eclipse. In an eclipse the sun is still there, it is just momentarily hidden. 

 In my own life I felt I had to hide my light as if I really let it shine, it would overtake others and they would be jealous of me or hate me, and I felt I would be all alone. I felt like if I were fully me, I would be a bad person because it seemed like others reactions to me were my fault, so I must be bad. If I danced around the living room, or laughed loud, or got loudly angry, or wanted others to notice me, I was a bad person. So I slowly hid my light; even from me at times. Unearthing my light has been a real joy and blessing to me. 

 Others' reaction to me, others' reaction to you are about them and their wounds, not us. Really taking that in is very freeing. What needs to happen for each of us is to be us fully; to let our light shine. Let's all come out of our eclipses and let our light shine. Our light is not our reactions to things and others, our light is about loving us and sharing our love with others through our gifts and blessings in life; through our strengths and weaknesses that make us who we are. We can then live whole, vital and healthy lives. 

Shift Your Story/Shift Your Life


Take a listen to the song: This Little Light of Mine, I’m Going to Let it Shine. Listen to it a few times and see how it makes you feel and how it might inspire you. Let's let our light shine.

My soothing words of wisdom for the week is about the days leading up to Thanksgiving:



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