Shadow Side

This week I am exploring shadows for my online photography class,"Eyes of the Heart." My instructor, Christine Valters Paintner, is a Benedictine Oblate and integrates spiritual formation with contemplative practice and the expressive arts. She describes her website, Abbey of the Arts, as a 'virtual monastery.' So while our class assignments include 'receiving' photos from our world, they are also invite us to become deeply reflective and  to delve into our spiritual nature. This seems to dovetail nicely with my Lenten reflections as I sit and become still in order to  more deeply contemplate my life: good and bad, light and shadow. My shadow against the snow compelled me to receive it as I walked all bundled up against the cold this week. It almost yelled at me to stop and think: anything or anybody that stands in the Light will cast a Shadow. This is what makes us real, both pieces of our nature, both parts of our humanity. No one is perfect, no one except Father/Son/Holy Spirit is pure Light. Only by recognizing my shadow parts will I be able to embrace myself, God's beloved child and His creation.