Have you ever noticed how many animals, ourselves included, have a primal instinct to orient to the light?
We know that our circadian rhythms are set by our access to sunlight. We need to expose ourselves to sunlight at certain times and frequencies so that we have regular sleep schedules. We know that we are more productive, have more energy and feel generally happier when we are exposed to moderate amounts of sunlight. Your pets know it too. In the midst of the dark days of winter (here in the northern hemisphere, anyway), when the sun makes an appearance, the dog is the first to find the narrow patch of sunlight streaming onto the floor in order to bask in it. Once I notice, I immediately move to be there as well.
Our bodies benefit from this most direct form of vitamin D generation, much moreso than with that found in supplements for our food. This nourishment is not only preventative in nature, helping our bodies operate soundly, it also has a healing effect when we are out of balance. Lay in the sun for even just twenty minutes when you don’t feel well and you will find this to be true.
Look to human rituals and you will find light as an extremely important and often reverent factor in ceremony. From lighting the candle to guide a loved one’s spirit when leaving the earthly plane, to tracking the movements of the sun throughout the year so that we know when to celebrate and welcome again, the longer, more light-filled days. Explore through some idioms and metaphors in the English language, for instance, and you will find a role for seeking light as that of providing hope, presence and resilience within the lived experience —
- someone being like ‘a ray of sunshine’ in their presence;
- looking for ‘the light at the end of the tunnel’;
- seeming ‘lit up’ when talking passionately;
- seeing another as ‘the light of your life’;
- assuring that ‘brighter days are ahead’; and,
- being led by a ‘guiding light’.
Let us consider what it means to orient to the light in a spiritual sense.
Perhaps you are familiar with various religious imagery that cast those most exalted ones in a frame of sun rays, as if their power and presence is being beamed directly from the sun itself. Or, from stories and text, such as the oft-quoted passage from Genesis in the Bible: “let there be light!” What about the many tellings of the all encompassing, experience of oneness and bright white light that has been glimpsed in experiences of altered consciousness or those described as ‘near death’? Pervasive themes that remain consistent across cultures and throughout generations often point towards important eternal truths.
I do not want for much when standing in a warming ray of sunlight.
How might we live if we were to orient to light — as a conscious action, as a reverent choice to receive the wisdom, guidance and sense of wholeness that is there waiting for us to notice it?
When you next catch glimpse of a nearby sunbeam, use the occasion to accept that gift — in all of its fullness and richness. Use it as a cue to step into it and unburden, let go, lighten your mental, emotional and physical load. Breathe it in deeply and receive this restorative, universal offering. Let the sensation of wholeness fill you up, so much so that you feel as one with the light. Be the light. Savor that moment of oneness and let it be your guide to coming home again, to that which is most true.
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