December has always reminded me of hope, but it is also a month of contradictions for me. It is a time where the winter solstice (i.e., the longest night and shortest day) occurs. For some of us, the need to get away in the winter months is a very real matter of survival. The lack of sunlight affects me and I always make an effort to get as close to the southern hemisphere as possible for a period of time during the winter months.

This is the month that Christmas occurs; the recognition of the coming of the Messiah...Jesus of Nazareth. In the New Testament, Jesus refers to himself as "The Light of This World" after healing a blind man on the Sabbath (leading a man from darkness to light). Christmas is known as a time of giving presents, but it is also a time when I am reminded of how little some of us have.

Then there is the Festival of Lights: Hanukkah.  Nearly 200 years before the birth of Christ, a Hebrew tribe known as the Maccabees wanted to re-dedicate the temple after driving out the Greeks in a three-year struggle.  However, the Maccabees only found enough oil to light their holy lamps for one day.  Miraculously, the oil lasted eight days; long enough for the Maccabees to make more oil. Thus, the Jewish tradition celebrates the blessing of something they had so little of that was made to last much longer then it was supposed to.

There are many interpretations of the comparison between Light and Darkness, but among the most common are good and bad...right and wrong.

In some circles, the shadow side is considered to be negative. But doesn't the shadow side teach us as well? Doesn't it teach us the very things that we don't want to attract or have in our lives? Experiencing the shadow side is important; it too makes us whole, knowing that which we no longer want to be a part of.

But let's face it. There can be no light without the absence of darkness...and no darkness without the absence of light.  One completes the other; in some sense, they make each other whole.

So as we go out and about this month (and in the months to come), I ask that we take a step back and look at all that is going on in our world and in our lives. Instead of rushing to judgment because of some perceived wrong done, what can we take away from it?  Instead of being overshadowed by our feelings of right and wrong, and good and bad, can we take a deep breath and ask ourselves what is it that we are to learn from other people's actions, or from our economy going into a recession, or from us losing our job or loved one, or from becoming ill? There is always something we can learn from even the most painful situation.

If this is something that eludes you, feel free to Contact Me and let us work together to bring light into the darkness that sometimes surrounds us when we are overwhelmed by a situation.

Be sure to join me at the Ah-Man Blog this month, to continue the discussion about finding the lessons in the Light and the Darkness.