A Rumi quote says,
“The wound is the place where the light enters you.”
Leonard Cohen also expressed a similar sentiment. The passage goes,
“there’s a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in.”
I always loved these two quotes, but maybe they aren’t as accurate as I once thought.
What if the cracks are what makes the light come out and not go in?
There is no doubt that life is not an easy expedition. It is full of many ups and downs, and it’s almost like being on a roller coaster. When you think the craziest loops are over, here comes an unexpected one that surpasses all the others. You have to have a strong stomach, hold on tight and brace yourself.
Life definitely will challenge you and help you to grow. It can also push one to the breaking point, making us crack.
Maybe those fissures are necessary? The troubles that we go through on our life’s path can also aid us in our spiritual journey. The spiritual pilgrimage is what assists us in uncovering ourselves and our true purpose.
Without encountering hardships, we would not be able to appreciate the difference between sadness and joy. Suffering forces us to go within and discover our inner strength and spirit. These circumstances help us to comprehend the lessons that we need to learn.
Everything that we need is within us. We are already full of light.
Sometimes life’s problems can cause us to become callused. It can harden our exterior, trapping the radiance inside of us. When our glow can’t get out, it can cause us to feel hopeless and make us sick. More of our luminous energy is exposed when misfortunes break us.
We don’t need to have the light come in. We are part of the universal energy.
The same power of our source is in every cell of our body. Life makes us forget this concept. We get so stuck in our everyday world, and we overlook our gleaming fire that needs to burn.
We temper our brilliance to please others. Our flame also becomes dim when we don’t stay true to who we are or what we want. Our light loses its luster when we encounter traumas and adversities. We continue to insulate ourselves and diminish our energy even more.
When life finally shatters us, creating cracks, that’s when we start to open again, and we let the inner spark come out. When we let our cracks open wide, our illumination can shine just as bright as anything in the universe.
We need to expand those gashes and share what caused them with others. When we share our experiences and our sparkle with others, it helps them see theirs. It allows them to shine bright as well, just like when you pass a stranger and give them a big smile. They smile back, and that smile becomes contagious. When we let our light shine, we can create anything in the world.
—
Previously Published on Medium.
***
You may also like these posts on The Good Men Project:
White Fragility: Talking to White People About Racism | Escape the “Act Like a Man” Box | The Lack of Gentle Platonic Touch in Men’s Lives is a Killer | What We Talk About When We Talk About Men |
—
Photo credit: iStock