Darkness and Light

The shortest day and the longest night have passed..

At midnight, we started our earth journey back towards the light.

Every year as the summer ends and daylight becomes shorter and shorter, we wonder if we will ever see the light again – at least on some days!

And then someone brings us something to laugh at, someone listens to our rant, or we listen to theirs. Darkness and light, light and darkness mixing, mingling, yin and yang.

We always have the choice to bring light to ourselves and to others. Both are essential.

Our choice becomes the threshold between the two.

Some people lead the way, showing us how to do this with elegance and grace.

Marci Moore was such a person.

Last week she lost her battle with cancer. Her body stopped but her legacy touched so many people that although she will be sorely missed, the memories and the way she lived will keep those of us still here, remembering her teaching.

She was remembered for the way she greeted people she didn’t know, with joy and welcome, making them feel immediately comfortable.

She was remembered for her hilarious self-expression.

When she asked someone for a ride to a conference she was requested to wear a costume by the driver. Saying she wasn’t a kind of costume person, she and her wife Pam arrived at the appointed time dressed as Teletubbies complete with yellow and red gloves. They laughed themselves silly on the ride up to North Carolina and caused extra hilarity in the rest stops where they made their entrance nonchalantly causing grins from delighted adults and children.

She was remembered for her encouragement of those who even brushed her world.

And, she will be remembered for her belief that all that is required of us is to show up with love – at the highest level.

This was her work. It is her work. She wrote a book about it: Love Letters to Your Life.

Her work lives on in the impact her life made on so many people who remembered that one time when they were not sure and she showed up with love pouring forth when they were feeling alone, and she showed up with love, when they were new and didn’t know a soul and there she was, showing up with love.

We make it so hard for ourselves. We get all wrapped up in the dark when the light has been there all along, waiting for us to notice it and amplify it to overcome that dark.

We can become observers of darkness, the things inside us that could use some refining and at the same time be the bearers of light, shining on all that is good within ourselves and then beaming it out to others.

We don’t have to be famous to show up with love. We don’t have to be anything but ourselves allowing that love within us to show up and be shared.