fog & shadow

"For some of us, the tension between Spirit and self is so great that we abandon the spiritual quest: we turn away from the source and walk in shadows because we do not want to see ourselves in an unbecoming light. Some of us resolve the tension by denying our own darkness and trying to walk where the lights are on all the time: we hold the dark world at bay and seek out situations that satisfy our need to stay "pure." In one way or another, we remove ourselves from the great dramas of life where God and world interact, where light and dark cohere, where contradiction abounds." - Parker J. Palmer