darkness

Flash Fiction Series Prompt: The Thing Below

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Episode 2: Yesterday, she fell into the dark. Today, something stirs beneath her.

The first sound was her own heartbeat—heavy, wild, animal.

Then came the echo of her breathing bouncing off the stone walls, close and cold. She couldn’t see the top anymore. They’d dropped her too deep. The basket beside her held bread, apples, and bottled water. A picnic for the condemned. “Until your owner comes,” one of them had said, his voice calm, almost kind. She pressed her palms to the wall, feeling for anything that might let her climb. The stone flaked under her nails. She clawed harder, her fingers raw and bleeding. Above, a circle of light shrank as a lid scraped across the opening. Darkness swallowed her whole. Somewhere below, water dripped—slow, rhythmic, patient. And in that sound, she heard movement. Something else was down there. Waiting.

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Question for Readers:

If you found yourself trapped like her, what would you do first—scream for help or start climbing in silence?

New Podcast:  Choosing Life: Even in the Middle of Nowhere

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Grief has no timetable, no straight road, and no map—but it does have travelers who understand. In this episode, Ray reflects on the exclusive “club” of the grieving and offers a deeply personal, hopeful path forward. Drawing wisdom from the Bible, West Texas road trips, and the poetry of Robert W. Service, he explores what it means to choose life even when every step feels like walking through darkness. If you’re navigating your own desert of loss, this episode reminds you: the tomatoes won’t grow there forever—but you will. One day at a time.

Sweet Darkness ~ David Whyte

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Sweet Darkness

David Whyte

When your eyes are tired
the world is tired also.

When your vision has gone
no part of the world can find you.

Time to go into the dark
where the night has eyes
to recognize its own.

There you can be sure
you are not beyond love.

The dark will be your womb
tonight.

The night will give you a horizon
further than you can see.

You must learn one thing.
The world was made to be free in.

Give up all the other worlds
except the one to which you belong.

Sometimes it takes darkness and the sweet
confinement of your aloneness
to learn

anything or anyone
that does not bring you alive

is too small for you.

Sourcehttps://allpoetry.com/David-Whyte

A Ritual to Read to Each Other ~ A Poem by William Safford

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A Ritual to Read to Each Other

William Safford

If you don’t know the kind of person I am
and I don’t know the kind of person you are
a pattern that others made may prevail in the world
and following the wrong god home we may miss our star.

For there is many a small betrayal in the mind,
a shrug that lets the fragile sequence break
sending with shouts the horrible errors of childhood
storming out to play through the broken dyke.

And as elephants parade holding each elephant’s tail,
but if one wanders the circus won’t find the park,
I call it cruel and maybe the root of all cruelty
to know what occurs but not recognize the fact.

And so I appeal to a voice, to something shadowy,
a remote important region in all who talk:
though we could fool each other, we should consider—
lest the parade of our mutual life get lost in the dark.

For it is important that awake people be awake,
or a breaking line may discourage them back to sleep;
the signals we give—yes or no, or maybe—
should be clear: the darkness around us is deep.

Source

Light Up The Darkness

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“There’s always going to be bad stuff out there. But here’s the amazing thing — light trumps darkness, every time. You stick a candle into the dark, but you can’t stick the dark into the light.” ~ Jodi Picoult

A Single Smile ~ A Poem by Paul Eluard

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A Single Smile

Paul Eluard

A single smile disputes
Each star with the gathering night
A single smile for us both

And the blue of your joyful eyes
Against the mass of night
Finding its flame in my eyes

I have seen by needing to know
The deep night create the day
With no change in our appearance.

Source

From Darkness to Light: Trusting Grief’s Journey

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In this episode, we explore the profound metaphor of waking up in the darkness and how it reflects the experience of grief.

Searching for Treasure

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Searching for treasure must be built into the human DNA. We’re always seeking something better, something beyond us. We invent things to help us search like genies in a bottle. Seers on mountain tops. We stop in antique stores looking for a hidden treasure. We go to auctions hoping for the same. All the while we avoid the one search that will take us to our most important treasure, taking the journey within to discover who really are. Helen Keller said, “What I am looking for is not out there, it is in me.” Dare to journey within. You’ll find some dark places, heal and forgive them. What will surprise you will be the overwhelming amount of light you find.

Today’s Thought: There’s No Running Away

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Take a cruise. Fly far off to another part of the world. Go into the mountains and find a cabin miles from civilization. No matter where we go, we can’t run away from our self or our problems. We can repress our reality. We can deny our reality. That doesn’t change our reality. Doing the hard work and means taking an in depth look at ourselves and acknowledging the darkness within. There’s darkness within each of us. When we come to grips with it we’ll learn to shine the light on it. If we ignore it, it will destroy our happiness. It takes courage to face one’s self. Sometimes we need professional help. Sometimes a good friend who has the courage to speak the truth to us helps. For those who dare to not run away and instead have the courage to dive deeply into themselves, the rewards are enormous.

Today’s Thought: Light and Darkness, It’s Always a Choice

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There is an ongoing battle between light and darkness. The two cannot coexist. The darkness draws us into anger and rage and minimizing people who are different from us. The light draws us toward respect, compassion, and cooperation. The darkness asks us to fear others because they are different. It builds false images and speaks of them as a reality. The light sees things as they are drawing people together to make a difference. Although, at times darkness seems to prevail, in the end, historically, light always triumphs over darkness.

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