The Light is There

It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light.”

– Aristotle Onassis

Dark moments happen all to often in the society that we live in today.  The sad part is that most of the time we encourage the darkness to visit us and for it to stay for as long as it wants; the problem is that the darkness will not leave until we kick it out.  When I say that we are encouraging the darkness to visit us I don’t mean that we are standing there with a sign that says “Pick me!”.  I am saying that we encourage it by how we let others darken ourselves.  We let others darken us by spreading lies, hurting us, dragging our name(s) in the dirt, and with the way that they treat us.  Anyone can cause darkness in your life.  It could be someone you know: friend, co-worker, boss, teacher, peer, etc.  The scary part is even a complete stranger can cause your life to be engulfed by darkness.

A fifth grade boy who wanted more than nothing but to be able to participate in games (cops and robbers, and tag) during recess at school couldn’t participate with the other kids like he wanted to.  The boy was completely healthy and had no restrictions on his physical activity for him to not be able to play those games.   A fellow classmate of his started a really nasty rumor about that boy, all the other kids believed the rumor.  They believed the rumor so much that they would just ignore him when he would as if he could play.  Some of you might be reading this and wondering what exactly this has to do with darkness. The answer is there and it is simple.  Because everyone believed the cruel rumor about the boy, he started to believe it himself.  When the teacher would dismiss class for recess, all the other students would cheer and run towards the door, while the boy slowly got up from his seat and made the walk to go outside.  You see, the darkness got so bad in that boys life that he didn’t even want to go and participate in what almost every elementary students subject was, and that was recess.  The boy would do nothing but just sit against the fence of the playground.  He would have no one to talk to just his thoughts.  His thoughts made matters worse because they were only terrible ones.  Thoughts about how lonely he was, about how he really wanted to play with the other kids, about how he just wanted a companion.  One day on the playground the boys darkness caught the attention of a new student.  The student noticed how sad the boy looked and invited him to play tag with a couple of the other kids.  The boys life lightened up from that moment on and the other kids forgot all about the rumor that was started.

There are other times when we are to find the light ourselves.  I am one of those people that tries to see the bright side of every situation and I realize that it can be hard at times to focus on that light; but that light is there you just have to find it. There was a time when I let darkness consume my life to the point where I almost ended my life.  But, something amazing happened, I like to say that a switch was turned on in my brain that moment.  I threw the darkness out of my life that day, and a light has engulfed my life ever since.  I use my light to help eliminate the darkness in others lives.

Goal: Remember that no matter how dark it may seem to you right now that if you focus really hard you will find the light.  Forget about the past, forget about what others said about you, forget what others did to you.  Find your light and let it shine, it might seem dull at first, but trust me it gets brighter.  Most importantly use your light to lighten the lives of others around you, something as simple as a compliment or a smile will go a long way.