My morning began, as all mornings do, in darkness.
I won’t use this opportunity to describe the beautiful neon-rose-and-gold sunrise that slowly followed as I sipped my coffee, because that’s not the point right now.
The point is that we’re starting a new year, and I think that things are dark — or at the very least, seem dark — for many of us.
Human culture has a long, deep, and problematic history of equating darkness with evil and light with good. The notion can be useful, metaphorically, but I think that too often we take it literally.
I know that the darkness (and the unknown mysteries cloaked within it) can be scary, especially as so many of us rely on our sense of sight to make sense of things — a sense which requires light. (I’ve been known to flee up the stairs from a darkened basement with a racing heart, eluding the grasp of some long-limbed, clawed horror just in time.)
But I think that, as creators, it can be valuable to make our peace with and accept the darkness.
As Julia Cameron notes in the final chapter of The Artist’s Way:
“Creativity — like human life itself — begins in darkness. We need to acknowledge this. All too often, we think only in terms of light… [but] bright ideas are preceded by a gestation period that is interior, murky, and completely necessary.”
Sending you love and hope as we begin a new year, nurtured together in darkness.
Words & warmth,
Sarah