SuperCoach

A Stroke of Light December 14, 2010

“Ring the bells that still can ring. Forget your perfect offering. There is a crack in everything; that’s how the light gets in.”  Leonard Cohen

My youngest first cousin died unexpectedly Sunday. She had a stroke. She was only 50.

Last week, my church suffered the unanticipated loss of a vital member. He was only 60. He, too, had a stroke.

The surprising, sudden transition of these vibrant souls has left much sadness and grief in the hearts and souls of surviving family members and friends. Is there any possibility there’s a glimmer of Light – a lesson for us – in these untimely deaths?

I think there is. From my personal experience and from stories I hear from many clients, these types of occurrences can create cracks in our being. And, if we’re patient and don’t hurry to seal them because they are painful, there exists the possibility that Light can get in. When life’s most jarring moments shake us up, the cracks they create can actually open us to allow Light into our deeper being.

This concept comes with the understanding that we don’t really know light unless we know dark. We don’t experience the compassion of our fellow human beings without difficult occasions where great compassion and a helping hand are needed. We don’t achieve growth without events that require us to expand our perspective to include something unexpected.

It occurs to me that this breaking open also allows something else. It permits the light within us, the light already in our souls, to emerge. When trials threaten to shatter our very spirit, we have an opportunity to experience something authentic sneaking out through the path of the crack itself. It’s the Light from our souls, beaming out into the world.

My message this week is a simple one; don’t wait to find your Light. See it in you and all around you today. First take a look in the mirror and acknowledge your own Light, then take in the small miracles with which you are surrounded – the smile of a loved one, the call of a bird, the fragrance of a beautiful flower. You and all of life are the Messengers during this Season of Light.

– Francie Cooper