The Gift of Darkness to Light

I took this on one of our early morning walks...

Positive Pensées

Kathy King

The Gift of Darkness to LIght.

“In order for the light to shine so brightly, the darkness must be present.”

Sir Frances Bacon

Do you feel encompassed by darkness?

Do you feel the weight of its might?

The light just can’t permeate, you just want to give up the fight.

You try to find your way, you crawl and use your hands. 

You feel around in the darkness. 

You try to stand. 

You are not sure you can find your footing.

You squint your eyes to see.

That one little pin prick of light, that will guide you to luminosity.

You stand and pray.

You hope and dream that this light will come to be. 

Your prayers lead you to firm footing, and you think that you just might see…

A small bit of shining as your eyes adjust to the dark, could it be?

Your spirit is bolstered, your heart starts to beat with a quick pump and a start.  

You take those ginger steps towards that small source of light. 

It becomes brighter and brighter as you squint with all your might. 

The prayers, the tears, the heartache, the storms.

You see them start to dissipate.

As the light just comes a little brighter with each step you take. 

When you have your sure footing your steps become more sure. 

Dear One, it is most certainly darkest before the dawn. 

Of that you can be sure. 

Don’t give up, pray, stand up in the dark.

So that when the sun begins to shine you know you made it even when times were dark.

Give thanks, feel the light, know your strength. 

You can do this, you are stronger than you think.

Today I was pondering the phrase, “It is always darkest before the day dawneth.” This phrase was uttered by theologian and historian Thomas Fuller. He uttered this phrase when he stood on Mt. Pisgah.  Moses stood there before his death to see the promised land. There are times when I feel that we are in a very dark time in humanity.  We have so much as compared to other places. Yet, well… we think it is too little. Recently I read a book about places in Appalachia where there are folks who cannot read, they don’t have running water or heat. They are destitute in poverty.  Right in this country.  It really caused me to convert my, “Ugh, I have to go to the store.” to “I am so blessed to be able to go to the store.”  This past year in our home has been dark, there have been health issues galore with several family members, other traumatic events as well.  Top it all off with the news cycle, social media, the division of folks. It just seems dark, right? You often hear people equate dawn and sunrise.  When in fact they are completely different. Dawn is when you can detect a little light in the sky.  Sunrise is when the sun makes its first peaks over the horizon.  I have shared many writings about my dark:30 walks with my husband.  This morning it was early, cold, and honestly I did not feel like doing it.  What a great attitude, right?  But in my move towards changing my line of thinking I stopped.  I thanked God that I woke up, I could walk, and as we were coming down the driveway, I saw the first pin pricks of light announcing the dawn. A lot of the time we have to tread some darkness to bask in the full light of day.  What is the real point of this musing? Keep going, keep the faith, keep praying, keep that strength.  Crawl, walk, stumble towards the light.  When the path is clear and lit, you know you have made it.  Let us pray for our world.  Let us pray for those who are in the midst of harsh war. Let us pray for our country. Let us pray for each other.  I leave you all with a quick story about Cpl Duane E Dewey.  He fought during the Korean war.  Earlier he had been significantly injured by a grenade during an attack during the night.  They were outnumbered and outgunned. Cpl. Dewey saw a grenade land in the midst of the soldiers.  He told everyone to get back and he selflessly jumped on top of the grenade. He was lifted off the ground and still survived.  When he was taken for treatment, they also found a gunshot wound in his stomach.  He was the recipient of the first Medal of Honor ever presented by Dwight D. Eisenhower.  Cpl. Dewey thought nothing of saving his whole squad in a very dark time.  We probably won’t ever be faced with a situation as dark as this (God willing)..... But we can appreciate his bravery of climbing from deep darkness into light.  Keep searching for that pinprick of light.. Eventually your path will be gloriously illuminated. 

Sources:

Uso.org

Bookbrowse.com

My Books are on Amazon!

The Quacktastic Adventures of Ellie and Lord Barks a Lot

Clean it Up!  Wash it Up!

Coming soon:

The Case of the Missing Honk Honk

The Case of the Missing Ornaments

Appalachian Allegory

The Gift of Guitars

Positive Pensées

Kathy King

The Gift of Frets

“The difference between the ordinary and the extraordinary is practice.”

Vladimir Horowitz

What is a fret?

A fret is a strip of metal on a guitar.

They make the most beautiful sound when the strings are added.

Melodies, harmonies, strokes and picks of pure beauty. 

Those frets turn into chords that folks can sing along.

The frets can play a Bach prelude and fugue that holds so much musical charm.

Frets on a bass guitar can keep the beat.

In order to use those frets and strings, you have to have calluses on your fingers to ease the pain.

If you do not practice and those calluses go away, you have to re-acquaint your fingers with those steel or nylon strings.

So when you hear the gift of frets don’t immediately think that you need to worry about all that life brings.

Frets are a gift that brings melodious strains and chords of pure beauty. 

Remember the playing, the practice all takes time and work. 

But when you come to play the music the reward produces much meaningful worth. 

As I was reading the news this morning… well, I just sighed.  I looked for a few minutes, read some articles and I had to put it down.  It is not that I am indifferent to the sheer suffering of others.  It is more of a, “Why are we humans so cruel to one another?”  I know that we live in a fallen world.  I know that for my part I can pray earnestly for those in peril.  But what can we do?  We can be better people.  We show care when there is none around us.  I know that this is must easier said than done but my goodness.  I wanted to share this quote by Ram Dass: “When you go into the woods and look at tress, you see all the different trees.  And some of them are bent, some of them are straight, and some of them are evergreens, and some of them are whatever. And you look at the tree, and you allow it.  You see why it is the way that it is.  You sort of understand that it didn’t get enough light, and so it turned that way, and you don’t get all emotional about it. You just allow it, you appreciate the tree.  The minute you get near humans, you lose all that.  And you’re constantly saying: You are too this, or I am too that.  That judging mind comes in.  And so I practice turning people into trees.  Which means appreciating them just the way they are.”

The guitar originated in Spain in probably the 16th century.  The guitar is obviously more portable than a full orchestra or a piano.  The type of the instrument is a chordophone which basically means the sounds are made through the strings and the vibration of the wood.  The neck originally had about 4 strings.  Today’s modern guitar has 6 strings. Before playing the guitar the strings need to be tuned with set notes.  Otherwise the chords will not be in tune and basically in the words of my music professor “It will sound like a musical gobbly gook mess.” Suffice it to say tuning is important.  When playing the guitar (in my experience particularly the acoustic guitar), you have to maintain calluses on your fingers otherwise the calluses will go away and you will have to repeat the painful process of calluses again.  So, practice is quite important.  Reforming calluses is not a fun task.  I have let my calluses go way too much. The piano is my main instrument, however I do like to play from time to time. When you place your fingers on the fret to form a chord, you use your pick and stroke the strings and voila!  You are making music.  Also, Bach never specifically wrote pieces for the guitar but some of the most beautiful pieces of music were adapted for the guitar.  Why frets?  How does this relate to life?  Our life is a song.  Whether that day is a melancholy minor (sad sounding) key, or a resounding major (happy sounding), key.  Each day is played with notes of life.  Those notes make up the scale that plays the great melodies and harmonies of our life.  For example, we will use the key of D major as our life song.  The first note is D which could be determination.  The next E, it could be an eagerness to make a better day and life for yourself.  Now, next is F# you can face the day whether it be sharp or flat, that is up to you to say.  G is next in line, it could be a generous gesture or some wisdom to be gained (gotta keep those calluses in good shape).  A, aim high, or find some amusement to lift your spirit.  Next we have B, take a moment and breathe, build someone up or find a small moment of bliss.  C# is next, what should it be? Catharsis? Charisma? You make the choice.  Finally we are back to D. The end of the scale where you can dance and play on your life frets a beautiful melody.  Frets are not always good in life, but they do keep us disciplined and mindful that when we don’t practice mindfulness and thankfulness we lose those calluses and have to start them all over again.  Play your frets with great gusto dear readers.  

Source: Yamaha.com

The Gift of Psithurism

 

Positive Pensées

Kathy King

The Gift of Psithurism

“Every leaf speaks bliss to me, fluttering from the Autumn tree.”

Emily Bronte

The gust of wind that gives you a little chill. 

The leaves that fall like rain all around, they make the most wonderful sound.

The red, the orange, the yellow beautiful leaves.

They are giving their show stopping performance before taking a reprieve. 

The crispness of an Autumn day adds to the delight of this wonderful display. 

Stop, take a moment.  

Enjoy the wind.

Let it caress you, let its tendrils touch your soul.

Enjoy the leaves, enjoy the wind, take a little stroll. 

Let them calm your spirit and take some time to pray. 

Give your spirit a respite from the cares of the day. 

The wind can be our teacher and a wonderful guide. 

To find solace in nature one day at a time. 

That solace leads to peace and meaningful reflection.

Which leads to growth, patience and for a moment, pure perfection.

Psithurism?  You are probably scratching your head wondering what in the world is she talking about now? Psithurism is the sound of wind in the trees and rustling of leaves.  I had not heard of this word until recently.  I thought about what an interesting word, interesting concept, and yes, I do love it. I thought, how can we relate this to everyday life?  One of the many times that my husband and I have visited Rhode Island, we were always in awe of the wind turbines.  There are a lot of them around and they are HUGE!  Those turbines provide power to many homes in the area.  What can we draw from that? Let the wind caress you, it will give you a little power.  Wind, (when it is not dangerous) is refreshing and can be quite powerful.  The leaves, well the rustle is kind of nice on a fall day.  I can remember when I was a child running and jumping into piles of leaves from the front yard.  It was quite fun.  One of the funniest things I have seen in the last few years is our really old lady dog running and jumping into the leaf piles in the backyard.  She acts like she is a puppy again. Today I had to drive for a while, so I decided I would catch the news.  Well, as I predicted.  It is not good.  So much suffering.  I offer my prayers for those who are in harm's way on a daily (sometimes multiple times) basis.  I cannot even fathom the pain that they are going through, the fear.  Sometimes life gets that way and we are not nearly as impacted as those across the pond (or some would argue, those who are only miles away from us).  We can’t see the forest for the trees.  What can you do? Well, I read today that you can go outside and feel the wind.  It takes something that is stagnant and blows away the mind and soul dust.  It is actually refreshing to the human psyche.  There are places in the Bible that refer to the Holy Spirit as a refreshing wind that lifts your spirit.  Wind, leaves, etc.. all are signs of rejuvenation.  The leaves fall so that they can grow again and be renewed.  The wind blows and brings cooler temps and refreshing rain.  Wind breathes new life into nature.  Go ahead!  Embrace Psithurism!  In the words of Henry Ford: “When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it.”