Me 'n' My Shadow

 Turn your face toward the sun and the shadow will fall behind you.
- Clarissa Pinkola Estes quoting an unnamed priest who attributes this saying to the Maori

When you stand with your back to the sun, your shadow is before you; but when you turn and face the sun, then your shadow falls behind you. 
- Inayat Khan

Shadow talk keeps popping up in my Facebook feed.  I read this first quote in a long missive of Clarissa Pinkola Estes' a few days ago, liking it so much that I wrote it on a piece of paper to sit in front of my computer monitor.  Then Inayat Khan's quote showed up this morning.

I am a lover of shadow.  A look-that-shadow-in-the-eye type of woman.  That's why I'm the life of the party.  Hee hee...

The thing is, in my experience, when we look the shadow in the eye and we see what it really is, at some point we find out that, in reality, it doesn't exist!  At least not as a solid, consistent, reliable entity like the sun.   And yet, shadows appear to exist.  I see one right now, under the desk in front of me.  I know of many that I hold - the judgments, fears, resistances within me that I try not to show others.  

Shine the light on that space under my desk, and whoosh!  Shadow gone. Shine the light on any judgmental thoughts, fears, or resistances...  Freedom!

It's kind of like popping every bubble that your friend blows out of those soapy bubble wands.  It's that fun, too.  Except when it's not.

I am not a revered teacher, published writer, or leader of an ancient tribe, so who am I to add to or argue with the wisdom that has been passed down?  I do think it is wise of us to keep our faces to the sun - the source of light.  But we need an addendum:

Turn your face toward the sun and the shadow will fall behind you. The sun will give light and life.  And the moments in which you face the shadow, do so with all of your being, looking to see of what it is made, letting the light of understanding shine upon it.*
- Carol Barrow

* This statement may only be a fleeting shadow, morphing into something else at such time that the author's understanding increases.  Or maybe not.