Salt and Sugar

I was preparing pan-cakes for me and the boys on a lazy Sunday morning and realized how similar salt and sugar look like. Yet, would you add salt to pan cakes, or would you add sugar to an omelette? Each spice has his importance, and the breakfast becomes yummy by adding both spices on different dishes. 

The winter months are approaching as well and I am getting increasingly depressed about the lack of light and the cold in northern New England. Yet, what is the alternative? To move to San Diego with its eternal sunshine but lack of water? Or to the sunshine state with its unbearable humidity over the summer? So it seems that every location and climate is perfect in its own right sometimes, just as it is off its mark on other occasions. The trick is to rotate the seasons and locations just as the migrating animals.

I spent five years searching the dark corners of my soul. This shadow work period was full of regrets and shame when it could have been an appreciation of the salty flavor that made my personality whole, or the rain storm that made the spiritual harvest abundant later. I spend most of my time telling others that the lesson learned of shadow work is to get it done with, but that is a little like telling the pan-cake that it should hurry up to become dark, or the winter to hurry along to make room for the spring. Just as cooking and nature require their time to make everything perfect, allow the shadow period to mature you and make you whole as a person. 

My friend, have no fear, no regrets and no shame as you explore the dark corners of your soul. You are not yet whole and there are diamonds hidden in the coal that you perceive. Dig them up one by one, and let life help you to synchronize your feelings with your spiritual insights. It is a process, not an event. Put your best foot forward along the Way, but never mind a few missed step, for that is part of the path too. You are a beautiful mensch and everything that ever happened, and is about to happen, makes you the gem you were born to be!