LIGHTEN UP

Dear All of Us,

If I may,
how do you deal with the dark
       the dark outside
       the dark inside
               duck, deny, defy
            pull the covers over your head - or soul
            turn on every light you can find
            cry out for Mommy, somebody, God 
            try to pill it away
            wait it out
            attempt to outrun it
            let it drain and deaden you
            seek some, any, genuine enlightenment
            let loose a psychic, soul scream
            thrash about 
            drag others into it
            long for light to dawn
            embrace it
            let it highlight the starry heavens
            realize that the other side of the world, of reality, is bright  
                      and will soon dawn where you are
            light a candle and join others to spread the light?
            

These are dark days.
Where many of us live it is winter.
It gets dark early and light late.
Seasonal Affective Disorder darkens in more than in a few ways.
Our social, cultural, political, governmental, religious, planetary days are dark -
terribly, dangerously, destructively so, like never before in all human history.
Check the Doomsday Clock, just reset 
to 100 seconds to midnight and oblivion.
Our response and reaction to all that darkness is itself deepest dark.
So many are scared witless - just don't know what to do,what will become of us.
So, yes
           how do you deal with the dark
                  the dark outside
                  the dark inside?

In a way we are experiencing a shared Dark Night of the Soul.
It's also a personal darkness.
It's not comfortable.
It's not easy.
It's doesn't need to be our final fate, the end of the story either.
So, how then do we Lighten Up?

We start where we are and look to where we can go even if it isn't yet clear.
We admit the dark and look for the light.
We accept that both are personal and private as well as shared and social.
No pulling the covers over our heads - souls.

We do what we can where we are to comfort and care for others 
suffering the dread of darkness however it is experienced.

We love and pray for the Doers of Darkness - the Captains of Empire
in governance, religion, commerce, media -  so sick and sinister  
and making it that way for this planet and us its people -  dark and dreadful.

As we feel our way along in the nothingness of dark we are not blinded 
to the terrain of light as we encounter it - oasis like - 
all those million moments and motions of luminous goodness - 
the dear and good people moving through the dark day 
in brilliant, life giving ways and creation itself unfolding in radiant beauty. 

We begin to see the need to simplify our life styles - 
stuff weighs us down to dark earth -
we let go of our more than enough 
so we are light enough to lift to light.

Darkness can scare the life out of us.
Yet, in the dark lovers open, thrust and merge into a divine luminosity.
It's intensely, wondrously bright and warm.
Lovers  are in the flow of the Love that is God.
They are a magnificent reminder that no darkness can stop love
in whatever form people make love - newly weds, social justice advocates, grandma making raisin oatmeal cookies for her grandkids, 
the parent putting up with a less than thrilling job to finance the family,
an old pastor writing a weekly blog to support your spiritual life...
There are endless ways of love making in the dark.
They are dark defying.

We're not all alone out here on the crust of the earth in the scary dark.
Light or dark, countless numbers of us are together.
We have taken Jesus up on his offer:
                   
                   "Abide in me as I abide in you...
                    As the Father has loved me, 
                    so I have loved you;
                    abide in my love."
                                                               (John 15:4 & 9 )
Talk about making love, being into each other!!!
What a Love Community!


Jesus reflected upon himself as the Light of the World.

                   "I am the light of the world.
                    Whoever follows me 
                    will never walk in darkness
                    but will have the light of life"
                                                               (John 8:12)

That wasn't some sort of self sell.
It was and is Self Share.
Jesus the Christ is intensity itself, 
the intensity of Divine Love, 
Reality Incarnate, 
higher voltage than anybody's calibration.
In company with him and each other, 
no matter than darkness, 
we together will have the light of life. 
The paradox here reminds me of John of the Cross describing 
The Dark Night Of The Soul as 

                         "luminous darkness".

Jesus goes on to widen the wealth:
                     
                      "You are the light of the world...
                       let your light shine before others, 
                       so that they may see your good works 
                       and give glory to your Father in heaven."
                                                                    (Matthew 14 and 16)

How about them apples?
Our light received and shared will brighten to glory giving.

From the get go of creation  the Word (articulation) of God,
has spoken into being all that is and no darkness will blot it out.

                       "What has come into being in him was life,
                        and the life was the light of all people.
                        The light shines in the darkness, 
                        and the darkness did not overcome it."
                                                                         ( John 1: 3-5)

Yes, these are terrifyingly dark days.
Yet, as dark as it is these perilous days, we sure can  
                       
                         Lighten Up 
        
         "The light shines in the darkness

      and the darkness(will) not overcome it.""



       So good to be together sharing life and light,

                         John Frank

                            *****


                 FOR PRAYERFUL MEDITATION


"When the soul is plunged into the fire of divine love,
 like iron, it first loses its (coldness and dullness),
 and then growing to white heat, it becomes like unto fire itself.
 And lastly it grows liquid, and, losing its nature, 
 it is transmuted into an utterly different quality of being...
 As the difference between iron that is cold, and iron that is hot, 
 so is the difference between … the tepid soul
 and the soul made incandescent by divine love." 

                                                           Richard of St. Victor

                                                 *****

"Do not be dismayed by the brokenness of this world.
 All things break. And all things can be mended.
 Not with time, as they say, but with intention.
 So go. Love intentionally, extravagantly, unconditionally.
 The broken world waits in darkness for the light that you are."

                                                            L.R. Knost

                                                            Passed on by my friend,
                                                            Michael Byler

 "No matter how deep the dark look to the stars."

                                                            John Frank

                                   *****

A bright, warm welcome to those new to our weekly gathering here at

                             "frankly speaking"
                          
                          spirituality for the street

-It is posted online each Thursday evening, east coast USA time 
                       johnfrankshares.blogspot.com

-It is available be automatic weekly delivery each Friday - 
                          sign up above online

- It offers past postings at Blog Archive - right column online.


                            SEE YOU NEXT WEEK!!!

____________________________________________________________