Light and Shadow
Thalia stood at the kitchen sink and rinsed a handful of soap bubbles down the drain. She loved using her charcoal pencil to smear and shape drawings into multi-dimensional creations — messy didn’t bother her one bit. The Muse of Wit appreciated and anticipated the tantalizing learning curve of pencil creation that still lay ahead. “It’s making the pie… not eating it,” she said to nobody in particular. Then she burst into peals of laughter. “Okay… who am I kidding? It’s making and eating the pie. Seriously, who’d make a pie and not eat it?”
“Of course we want to eat the pie!” Cal nodded. “Wasn’t today’s Listening Circle call enlightening? It was so enriching to hear each person’s perspective on their very own superpower. One beautiful light in the group joked that she might not be able to turn grass into wool, but she could knit a human sweater from a sheep’s fuzzy coat.”
“When it was our Typist’s turn,” said Nia, “she shared that she feels it is her willingness to be seen that is her superpower. Now that she’s explored and befriended her tendency to hide in the shadows…” Urania and Thalia both smiled at Calliope. “… she hopes her willingness to be seen makes space for others to do the same.”
A word from Typist:
This morning I opened a message from a friend and generous member of this community. JH has been a long time commenter and encourager. When I started my 100 Naked Words writing journey six years ago, JH and I connected over his math socks, which feather-dusted Thalia’s funny bone.
He and his lovely wife are traveling and have brought along a stack of Gift of Shared Kindness cards. I am so tickled to know they’ll be rippling and creating waves of joyful feelings on their adventures.
Yesterday I listened to Oscar Venhuis and Lee du Ploy discuss how many of us have forgotten that we have a choice in how we live. We can choose simplicity and joy over stress and anxiety… How might you turn on your light?
Today’s ride through this post suggests we would be wise to cinch down our saddles tight, but leave the spurs in the tack room! Which of course is wonderful. The question about making pies - To eat, or not to eat. That is the question - tickled some ribs. Rhubarb pie seemed a logical candidate to not eat!
The recent Listening Circle discussion about our superpowers touched a spot in me. After some very early events that left me avoiding any type of public speaking occasions, I turn to my seemed ease of blabbering in this community. Some of that disparity may be that we don’t interact visually over Zoom. Of course there is the family shot comprising my avatar, but most find my dog to be more compelling.
Typist invites us to note how we might turn on our lights, which raises this question: once we discover or focus on a part of us that would rather remain in the shadows, is it incumbent on us to address that shortcoming? And if we fail to do so, does that limit our ability to shine in other aspects of our lives?
I raise that question to genuinely invite feedback from any and all who might choose to. “You face, my thane, is as a book where men May read strange matters.” Wm. Shakespeare. Further along in this quote from MacBeth, it continues: “look like the innocent flower, but be the serpent under’t.”
I was de-fanged some time ago…
Another beautiful post Gail. Coincidentally I’ve been reading Susan Cain’s latest, ‘Bittersweet’, while I’ve been walking Camino Finisterre over the past week, I think you’d find it interesting? 💚