Get ready for metaphor time…
This metaphor is largely known, in fact I don’t know anyone who didn’t know the reference when I have used it in the past. I think it is so largely known because everybody can relate to it. I don’t know anyone who hasn’t gone through a dark time in their lives. If you have never experience hardship or bad times that I actually pity you. (For the writers out there, can you feel sympathy for someone who is not hurting?) For it really is in the fire that we are forged. Without those dark times how would we ever know the peace and joy of bright days?
Back to the light… I have been so far down the tunnel that I can’t see my hand in front of my face. Then that magical ‘light’ comes into view. Unfortunately, there have been times that that light is a train. Ready to run me over if I did not get off the tracks fast enough. I did, fortunatly, not always easily and a few times barely. (But for the grace of God…). Eventully that light was the end of the tunnel.
You would think that life was easy when emerging from the darkness. Not so. Have you ever, literally, gone from a dark place straight into the brightness of day? How long did it take for your eyes to adjust? Climatize to the new surroundings? Find the right path that lead you to where ever you were going? And that is just the physcial aspect of dark to light.
In the world of self improvement, depression, or mental health, that darkness to light can be harder than stumbling around in the dark. Is it worth it? Possibly, it was for me. Can I say that it is for everyone? Or is it that those who have not found a better life haven’t found the light yet?
(I feel I need to put a disclamer in here. I am not a religious person. I believe myself to be spiritual. I believe in ALL the gods and higher powers and in all their names. This was starting to sound like a “Come to Jesus” moment. It isn’t. It is a Come to Mental Wellbeing Moment.)
If you ever find yourself at the beginning of a tunnel and you can’t see the other side. GO. Stumble. Find your path. It will be worth it. If you chose NOT to go. That’s okay too. As long as you are okay with being who you are at this moment in time. For the only change comes from facing the unknown. Scary, but true.
