What I want is to not feel the weight of our human condition burdening the world with hopelessness and despair.

What I want is to let go of knowing our human capacity to harm one another without thought of the consequences of our deeds.

What I want is to believe there is only light.

But I know I cannot do that. To have what I want, I must live in denial of the darkness.

I do not want to do that.

And so, I choose to see the darkness. To witness the crimes against humanity, the desperation of the oppressed, the fear of the oppressor. The tears of the abused. The anger of the abuser.

I choose to acknowledge we are all of this. I am all of this for if it is in you, it is in me.

We are all of this. And so much more.

We are darkness. We are light.

We are the lies we cannot hear and the ones we repeat to keep ourselves from hearing the truth.

We are the sadness and sorrow of the things we do to harm one another. We are the laughter and joy of loving one another fierce and true.

We are limited by our beliefs. We are limitless possibilities of life.

And though I cannot erase the pain and suffering, though I cannot eradicate hunger and disease, I can stop turning away from those who suffer, those who harm, those who blame and shame and ignore the pain of others. I can stop pretending that I am powerless to see what is happening and choose instead to walk into the darkness shining my light so that others can see there is light in the darkness.

Because when I shine my light, I am courageous enough to see into the darkness that is all our humanity and still believe in the goodness of humankind.

When I shine bright, I am strong enough to shoulder this burden of our human condition as if it is made of feathers.

And when I never quit believing in the beauty of our shared humanity, I am powerful enough to change my world in ways I never before imagined.

I want to pretend the darkness is not there.

I cannot do that so I carry my light where ever I go because I believe the light will always overcome darkness and Love will always lead the way as long as I keep stepping into the darkness shining my light as bright as I can be.

And in that light, I join hands with all who walk with eyes wide open in the darkness, holding their light for others to see.

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I was going to share photos of my visit to Vancouver — but I have to upload them first to my computer and then… this morning, I dropped into David Kanigan‘s place, followed a link he shared to another blog, Memory’s Landscape, and….

well… let’s just say the muse had her way with me as she is wont to do when I feel inspired by the beauty, wonder and awe of all I discover is possible when I stop pretending nothing is.