Yesterday, I spent my contemplative time focusting on what it means "to walk in the Light." As a Quaker, this is an important phrase and issue.
Walk in the Light: to be enlightened, enlightenment, to see our way out of darkness
In order to understand the Light, it helps enormously to have experienced and comprehended the darkness, whether we mean the darkeness of life's circumstances or the darkness that results from our own unwise, selfish, and/or short-sighted choices. When we chose to act without integrity, we are not walking in the Light.
Are there ever times when the lighted way is unclear? Of course! We Quakers use contemplation and the consensual process as means of discerning which path is the lighted path. Sometimes the way that is eventually revealed surprises us; it's not what we had originally assumed. It is too easy to jump to conclusions -- "This is the way things should be," we might think early in a situation or a decision-making process. This is why we Quakers use silence to leave ourselves open to the ultimate teacher, that which is of God within us, which is the best teacher of all.
Odd as it may seem, sometimes being aware of personal boundaries is a huge manifestatin of the Light. What is and what is not in my personal domain? If I overstep, my integrity is compromised. Having my own way is not contiguous with walking in the Light.
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