The Shadow

 The internet and World Wide Web trains us to want and expect things instantly.  This includes our own personal development.  People enter into religion or recovery expecting to get holy or sober, or at least to change sooner rather than later.  But time takes time.  If one has spent a long time and effort to become a mess, why should change be so instant?  Imagine “light” as in shining or bright.  It is an image often given in the spiritual path.  You hear, “Become the light!”  Your life seems to be a lot of darkness or at least dullness.  But you sense that you are not becoming the light as you wished.  Well, does not light cast a shadow around it?  You cannot see light if there is no shadow or darkness.  The light of a lamp is not visible in the clear light of the sun.  Be content to be near the light.  Become the shadow.  Your life, by your actions will become the shadow that reveals the light.  Recovery is the light and many are shadows on the journey.