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DAVID BENTLEY'S WEEKLY COLUMN

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A Different Light

Whenever I look at my house, one side is lit up brightly by either the sun or a street lamp. Another side is quite dark because it is blocked from the light by the rest of the house. The other two sides are somewhere between these extremes. Yet all four sides of my house are made of the same materials and painted with the same paint. The difference in the way the four sides appear is the amount of light shining on them, which can be affected by the time of day or the season.

Our lives also have light and dark sides to them, which come from being informed or uninformed. When I experience a dark side of myself, I need new information to help shine additional light on the situation. Sometimes I obtain this new information by myself through study, observation, trial and error, contemplation, meditation, or prayer. Other times I need the help of a friend or a professional. By looking at a dark part of myself in a new way, or considering my situation differently with additional information, the darkness is banished. I can then see my life in a different light.

Just as the lack of light on one side of my house does not make it better or worse than the other sides, experiencing a dark side in my life does not make me a bad person. It merely signals that I am uninformed about this part of my life, and need the light of additional knowledge to show me the way out of the darkness. When we recognize darkness as a lack of light rather than a reason for feeling defective, we can see that our dark sides are nothing to be feared. They are just integral parts of ourselves waiting to be illuminated.

  • Which dark sides of your life have you ignored or denied?

  • Are you willing to look at these parts of your life without judging them?

  • How can you illuminate these dark sides?

  • What will you do when the amount of light changes?

© 2003 David Bentley

David Bentley, M.Ed. & Personal Coach, coaches clients through the game of life, helping them find balance, clarity of direction, and purpose in an ever-changing world.

You may contact him at 360.378.8436

by e-mail at david@coachbentley.com

or visit his Web site: www.coachbentley.com

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