Learning to glow in the dark

There's a lot of uncertainty and negative stuff happening at the moment all around the world and everyone has been feeling it for a while. I've been pulling out a lot of stops to emotionally detach from it while still taking decisive action in what is within my sphere of control and influence.

Do things sometimes get the better of me? Yes, absolutely, I am human and while I feel that I am generally well balanced and tend to look at these events objectively, it doesn't mean that I am oblivious to the knock on effects that they have.

Yesterday and last night it was bitterly cold here. My fingers didn't want to type, but I still pushed through with the help of coffee and sheer willpower. When bedtime arrived I was relieved and after LL was wrapped up and soundly asleep I put on one of my favourite bands and caught up with the housework.

I listened to felt how the melancholic (yet blatantly true) lyrics jarred with the upbeat tempo of the song and it somehow had the profound effect of making me feel better. Perhaps that's kinda weird, but it felt perfectly normal, that even when there is absolute chaos and destruction raging, there is still something to counter it. In that moment it felt like a pressure release valve had been opened and the acceptance of the dichotomy felt liberating.

There's a shit load of stuff in life that we simply shouldn't accept. Atrocities are committed every day and we are made aware of them regularly. Often we are only shown parts of a bigger picture, yet we can only do what is within our power to change the status quo and it starts at grass roots level, in our own lives. We always have a choice - we can either be a force for good or a force for bad. We can stand for justice or become the perpetrators of injustice. It is very simple concept yet very difficult in today's world.

Even when the world seems dark and things are uncertain, we can still choose to glow, that power is always within us, we just need to learn how to do it.

I took this photo of Miffy glowing in the dark even though the bunny looks really sad. It seemed to illustrate it perfectly to me. Doing what's right isn't always easy, but it can light the way for others. I've stood up to injustice on many occasions and it was never pleasant, but it was only when I did that, that other people around me started to even notice and then like dominoes, others also found some courage to do the same when faced with similar choices. So even though that experience was horrendous for me and cost me dearly, I know that had I chosen inaction, it would have sat on my conscience until my last breath. I have found acceptance of my difficult path because I know the path least travelled is most often than not, the right one.

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