The Secrets of Darkness

I'm sure it didn't happen all at once, but one day, it grew too dark for me to see. The Darkness had rested upon me like an endless, smothering blanket and try as I did, I could not find my way out from under it.

At first, I was writhing, panicked, and desperate. And then I grew tired, resigned, and hopeless. It was in this state that I was still enough to see it: it was very small, not bigger than the head of a pin--yet, easy to see under my pitch-black canopy. Warm, yellow, glowing, it was...was...what?

"Light," the speck called out, drawing nearer to me. "I am Light, who comes bearing the secrets of Darkness."

"The Secrets of Darkness?" I asked apprehensively, not sure I wanted to know such secrets.

"Yes," the Light replied. "Follow me, and I will teach you. It's going to require your energy and your trust--walking with Light in the darkness always does. But I assure you, it's better than the alternative."

“What’s the alternative?”

"To succumb to Darkness," Light replied.

Instantly, I knew the speck was right. As hard as it seemed to stand on my feet and follow this Light, harder still it seemed to remain as I was--swallowed up in the depths of this Darkness. And so I followed the flickering speck, and it was strange, but seemed that with each unsteady step I took, the little Light grew, so that my path was illuminated just a little more clearly the farther we went.

And then the Light stopped, and shone upon a wall. Moving across a small, bold sentence written there, I read: Secret #1 - Darkness cannot go where Light is. 

"This is the first secret Darkness would not have you know. It wants you to believe it is vast and unconquerable. However, what every man and woman ought to know is that Light has complete and total control over Darkness," the Light explained. "This has been so from the time Light was first separated from Darkness. There has never been a single instance where Light fled from Darkness. And never, since the world began, has Darkness defeated Light."

"Why is that?" I asked.

"You see, there is nothing to Darkness. No form, no substance, no power. Darkness, by definition, is the absence of light--nothing more. In the presence of Light, it vanishes like smoke."

"If Darkness is so powerless, then how does it capture so many of us?" I asked. 

"Ah, an interesting question. Follow me," the Light replied. 

My Light guide continued to illuminate bigger and brighter, and I noticed how the impossible Darkness was pushed farther and farther from me as I continued to make strides with the Light. I recognized the truth of Secret #1 as we continued. As I followed the Light, Darkness fled at my feet--without putting up so much as a fight.

"We are here," the Light announced, shining upon another sentence: Secret #2 - Remaining in Darkness is in some ways easier, but in no ways better.

"Here we find one way Darkness is able to capture so many. One of the great mistakes of man and woman is to believe easier and better to be synonymous terms. They are not. When you and I first met, I told you that following the Light in the Darkness requires both energy and trust. To give of yourself in energy and trust is not easy. Learning how to make fire? Not easy. Studying until your mind is filled with the light of new knowledge? Not easy. Casting the darkness of doubt from your heart? Not easy. But fighting Darkness with Light is worth every ounce of effort--no matter how difficult the fight. Because what other choice do you have? To suffocate in the Darkness. Easier? Perhaps. But in no ways better."  

I understood what the Light was telling me, but something else was bothering me now. "It's worth it to fight for the Light in Darkness. I get it, and I agree. It's just that...before you came...I didn't know how to find light, let alone generate it. I still don't. You found me. So...how am I supposed to fight Darkness in the moments when there is no Light to be found?"

"Your inquiry leads us to our final secret," the Light replied, and as before, we moved forward. By the time we reached the 3rd secret, my once-little Light had grown to fill the space around us, so all that was left of the once-all-encompassing Darkness was shadows and hidden corners. 

Secret #3 - No matter how dark it gets, there is always an inextinguishable light inside you. 

"This is perhaps the secret Darkness would like you to know least of all, because it would render Him powerless to any man or woman. During those longest, blackest nights, you take courage! Where you cannot find light, remember: it lives, inextinguishable, inside you. This light is given to every man and woman--and when you realize it is yours to use, you hold it high above your head. All the light that exists in this world will disperse the darkness and be drawn to you. One twinkle at a time, light will organize itself in and around you, until you are blazing through this world as the fiery, divine being you have always been. Yes, Darkness would not have you know this secret. He would not have you know the power that eludes Him, and lives inside the least of all men and women. Once you know the secret, you become a being of light, against whom Darkness stands no chance." 

Even as the Light spoke, I could unmistakably feel the light It was talking about--the one that lived inside me. It had always been there, how had I not felt it before? Steady and inextinguishable. 

"And now, I must go," the Light said.

"Go? But why?" I asked in alarm.

"I am drawn to the light inside other men who cry out in the darkness--just as I was drawn to the light inside you," the Light said. 

As quickly as it had come, the speck left me. At first I was afraid that the smothering blanket of Darkness would cover me once more. To my surprise, though, the light remained even after the speck had left. And that's when I realized it: it wasn't the speck who had been growing brighter as we walked together; it was me, a being of light, who illuminated the darkness now.