The light is retreating where I live, noticeably. I’m into it this year, my psyche begging for a bit of slow- down. Just a moment, please, to be quiet, to process, to metabolize, and to get clear on some thinking. Something, or likely many things, have made these last couple of months feel frenetic and off-pace. I feel it, and I feel like it’s visible.
I thought I’d invite those of you who are engaged with this monthly creativity exploration to do something “easy”~ to play with your shadow. What does that mean? Well, you’d get one answer from a Jungian, and and another from a young grade schooler… maybe their ideas would meet up somewhere and skip around in tandem for a while before going off in various directions.
So, I’ll leave it at that~ Play With Your Shadow, in whatever way makes sense to you. There can be no directions for this!
But for some fun, I’ll share this classic poem.
My Shadow
I have a little shadow that goes in and out with me,
And what can be the use of him is more than I can see.
He is very, very like me from the heels up to the head;
And I see him jump before me, when I jump into my bed.
The funniest thing about him is the way he likes to grow—
Not at all like proper children, which is always very slow;
For he sometimes shoots up taller like an india-rubber ball,
And he sometimes gets so little that there’s none of him at all.
He hasn’t got a notion of how children ought to play,
And can only make a fool of me in every sort of way.
He stays so close beside me, he’s a coward you can see;
I’d think shame to stick to nursie as that shadow sticks to me!
One morning, very early, before the sun was up,
I rose and found the shining dew on every buttercup;
But my lazy little shadow, like an arrant sleepy-head,
Had stayed at home behind me and was fast asleep in bed.
~ by Robert Louis Stevenson
Healing Handcrafting 