Shadow4 by Ludmila (Lucienne) Buga

Shadow

Most of the shadows in our lives exist because we are standing in front of our own sunlight. (Ralph Waldo Emerson)

The shadow does not like the “light of consciousness.” It is very difficult to “hunt down” and identify it because the shadow, as a rule, hides: here it flashed in front of us and disappeared from sight again… but an unexpected “splash” of emotions, a feeling that the blood “knocks through the veins,” the heart beats “like an alarm,” although it seems there is no direct danger, and we were suddenly “covered” with fear, anger, longing…, betrays its presence… It always “follows us on our heels.” Despite the “stealth,” it persistently appears in our life in many guises (dreams, casual slips, spontaneous, unintentional actions, etc.). There is not a person on the whole earth who does not have this mysterious companion, powerful and invisible. Our double, our opponent, with whom each of us should… get to know each other better…

The shadow comes because it wants to know if we are ready to meet it “face to face” and recognize in it a part of ourselves, perhaps the ugliest (black, unkempt, obscene, with scars, fangs, and claws), but far from the most weak…

If we have the courage and determination to “look into its eyes,” it is ready to share its strength with us… But if we do not notice it and rarely look in her direction, it becomes dangerous, turning our life into a walk through the “minefield”… So is it worth waiting until it, having not achieved recognition, “shatters” our usual comfortable life to shreds?…