Halloween Shadows

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0 height="100%"><tr> <td valign="top" width=220 BGCOLOR="#CCCC99" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Practical Spirituality"><U>WMEades.com Home Page</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="http://www.counseling-waco.com" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.counseling-waco.com"><U>Counseling-Waco Home Page</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="http://wacopartnership.org" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://wacopartnership.org"><U>Waco Partnership for Psychological and Spiritual Care Home Page</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="http://practicalspirituality.wordpress.com/" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://practicalspirituality.wordpress.c"><U>Practical Spirituality Blog</U></A></div> <div> _________________________</div> <div> <A HREF="aboutme.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="About Me and My Work"><U>About Me and My Work</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id518.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Making an Appointment"><U>Making an Appointment</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="policies.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Policies"><U>Policies</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="cost.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Cost of Counseling"><U>Cost of Counseling</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="helpfularticles.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Helpful Articles"><U>Helpful Articles</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="directions.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Directions to Office"><U>Directions to Office</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="booksummaries.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Book Summaries"><U>Book Summaries</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="counseling.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Pastoral Counseling"><U>Pastoral Counseling</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="premarriage.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Premarriage Counseling"><U>Premarriage Counseling</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="enneagram.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="The Enneagram"><U>The Enneagram</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="faith.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="When Faith Doesnt Work"><U>When Faith Doesn't Work</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="http://www.centexintergroup.org/schedule/schedule_local.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.centexintergroup.org/schedule"><U>Alcoholics Anonymous Mtgs</U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="http://www.theravive.com" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.theravive.com"><U><IMG SRC="83da03c0.jpg" border=0 width="160" height="60" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></U></A></div> <bR> </td> <td valign="top" BGCOLOR="#EEEEEE" TEXT="#080000"> <div> Halloween is an interesting (and controversial) excuse for a party.  When I was a kid everyone participated in the socially sanctioned begging for free candy, and no one much cared about any possible spiritual/moral consequences related to identifying with the darker side of nature.  Besides that, I was never interested in being a ghoul or a goblin anyway.  I preferred to go as a Dallas Cowboy (which, I suppose some would say, is worse than being a ghoul or goblin!).</div> <bR> <div> I have no desire to argue one way or the other for the event.  I think I understand the perspectives of both those who think Halloween is harmless and those who believe it to be harmful.  What I am more interested in is the annual reminder that Halloween brings: <I><B>Darkness is real</B></I>.</div> <bR> <div> My three year old son appear at our bedside in the middle of the night recently.  For the first time in his brief little life we heard the words, “Mommy, I’m scared.”  It broke my heart.  He is growing up, and that means developing an anxiety about dark places.</div> <bR> <div> Much of our pain in life comes from the ways we deal with (or ignore) the shadows around us (and within us).   The Swiss psychiatrist, Carl Jung, had a lot to say about shadows.  He rightly pointed out that all of us have a dark and foreboding side that can jump up and bite us.  He noticed that people often make one of two dreadful mistakes with regard to their shadows.  Some people try to deny that they have a shadow side.  Other people become convinced that all they are is a shadow.  People in the first group are forever running their cars off into the ditch and blaming it on all the other drivers.  People in the second group become convinced that they are nothing but menaces on the road, and so never even try to drive.  Both perspectives are dead wrong.</div> <bR> <div> The fact is, you do have a dark side.  Sometimes you deal with it redemptively and constructively.  Sometimes you do not.  May I make two suggestions?  First, I have found it much more helpful to be curious about my shadows rather than to beat myself up over them.  It seems that many people I work with get so distracted with beating themselves up over their shadows, that they hardly get around to doing something constructive about them.  Second, keep in mind the words from one writer of the Christian faith tradition: “<I><B>A light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never put it out</B></I>” (John 1:5).</div> <bR> <div> Peace and Grace (or should I say trick or treat?),</div> <bR> <div> Wes</div> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>