Going Deeper Into Our Written Work

I know that going deeper into our written work involves meeting with the shadow side.

These shadows are sometimes called “the dark side.”

They are parts of us that we may want to hide because they make us look less than perfect.

Meeting with my shadow side is always an important time of authenticity for me.
I also know that in our lives today, some folks don’t want to sit with their shadows.
We want to only show what is considered beautiful and strong.

Someone has told us that life should always hold positive thoughts and expressions. Therefore, we were mistakenly informed to never look at the “dark side” because if we do, something bad may happen. Some believe that by uttering a truthful word that wasn’t all sunlight and rose petals they would be destroying something, or inflicting bad things into their world.

It’s like thinking that we are so powerful that if I say, today I am feeling lonely, the sky will crumble…
Or if I am contemplative and quiet the earth will tremble.

If I am bold enough to write that sometimes I feel unsure and afraid in this journey, that mountains will fall down…

Trust me, they won’t.

None of this will happen.

And so I sit with my shadows.

They have wisdom for me to see and understand.
They are not condemning and finger pointing when I listen deeper.
The older ones have wisdom if I sit quietly and listen beyond my own fears and conditioning. My shadow guests are not always kind in the way I think kindness should be… they do not bring me rainbows and flowers. Instead they are insightful, like a fire or the floods.

They pull back the superficial in my life. They destroy what is false.  They reveal treasures that are hidden.

If I am paying attention and I take my hands away from trying to cover the ears of my heart…
If I stand in the confidence that my shadow side will not destroy me but help me move into more authenticity in my work …

I find that beneath the winds there are deeper dreams, deeper insight and the deeper calling.
Only if I am willing to sit here to ponder and go deeper into my writing will I even know that this is possible.

The featured art, Essence of Desert Rain, is available in art cards from my shop.

Do you want to move deeper in with your writing? Please join me in Room One.