We Are Story. Light.

I've spent a lot of time in my life thinking and trying to work things out and figure things out and make things happen and learn 'how to do it' and find the best way, and win the race and earn the grade and be liked by others. None of that is why I am here. Although all of that adds value to the story I have to tell. Because it is all of our story.

At the risk of sounding trite, we have all we need within ourselves to contribute what we have been 'called' to contribute in this life. At every moment we've got a story to tell. At every moment we have experience that can shed light on the path of another. That's all we need. That's all we are. Story. Light. We are all walking stories of a light that lives in darkness, and that lights journey to realizing that it is not the darkness. And we become One again.

I read something recently that I just love:

Sister Joan Chittister continues to reflect on what it means to suffer through times of doubt or unknowing when it comes to our faith:

The sense of being stranded in the midst of life . . . is enough to drain a person’s very personality until there is little left to recognize. Where did the joy go all of a sudden? Where did the feeling of self-confidence disappear to in the midst of this emptiness? Just yesterday life was clear and vibrant. Today it is endlessly bleak. The darkness is unyielding. Nothing helps; nothing takes it away.

There is no light here, we think. But we think wrong.

There is a light in us that only darkness itself can illuminate. It is the glowing calm that comes over us when we finally surrender to the ultimate truth of creation: that there is a God and we are not it. . . . Then the clarity of it all is startling. Life is not about us; we are about the project of finding Life. At that moment, spiritual vision illuminates all the rest of life. And it is that light that shines in darkness.

Only the experience of our own darkness gives us the light we need to be of help to others whose journey into the dark spots of life is only just beginning. It’s then that our own taste of darkness qualifies us to be an illuminating part of the human expedition. Without that, we are only words, only false witnesses to the truth of what it means to be pressed to the ground and rise again.

The light we gain in darkness is the awareness that, however bleak the place of darkness was for us, we did not die there. We know now that life begins again on the other side of the darkness. Another life. A new life. After the death, the loss, the rejection, the failure, life does go on. Differently, but on. Having been sunk into the cold night of . . . despair—and having survived it—we rise to new light, calm and clear and confident that what will be, will be enough for us.

- Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation, Center for Action and Contemplation www.cac.org

Whoever you are find ways to share your experience. It can provide strength for someone else. It can provoke identification so we learn that we are not alone as EGO would like to have us believe. It can provide hope for getting through a season that never seems to end.

Whether on stage, on the bus, with your children or on a blog, share yourself. Tell your story. And don't forget to ask others about theirs. And best of all, Listen. Below is a clip from a performance I did in San Leandro in 2018 - I was workshopping a one woman show. Living in Los Angeles and pursuing a movie career through comedy was a dark and painful experience. But...

There is a light in us that only darkness itself can illuminate.

"LOOKING FOR STAGE TIME"