What a total solar eclipse can reveal to us about the gifts of the darkness and the light of being human
The shadow moved in slowly, steadily, subsuming the brilliant, hot light in nearly imperceptible increments. I watched it in awe, an inverse image of how I know the universe to work. Full moon nibbled away bite-by-bite toward waning crescent. Only it wasn’t the moon that appeared as if it was being consumed. It was the sun. The all-powerful star of the daytime show at the peak of its performance, eclipsed by a smaller player – the moon.
From Falling Back to Springing Forward
[In image: “Tick Tock Theater” with photo from the “Particular” montage. Rachel Phillips’ Ghost Light Theaters.]
When I was in the midst of my dissertation research, attempting to articulate a theory of fallback, it was autumn in the United States. At the time, developmental researcher, author, practitioner extraordinaire, and one of my research key thinkers, Jennifer Garvey Berger, lived in New Zealand where they were just emerging from winter. There was a period of that research season, as we wrangled our calendars trying to find a date and time for our next interview, that Jennifer and I were actively in the discussion of the precise days that I would fall back and she would spring forward. And for those of you who may doubt that these occurrences of falling back and springing forward are predictable but who may also have your interest piqued in how they could be possible, let me clarify…
Getting in my own way
I get in my own way. A lot. I’ve been watching me doing this for a while. Noticing. Observing. Reflecting.
Most often it’s my Righteous One that cuts me off at the pass. She’s the one who insists on holding her ground around her values, who has a hard time seeing any other perspective than her own. She fears that if she bends, she might break.
No, actually, that’s not it. She fears that if she bends, people will think she’s inauthentic. Authenticity is a big thing for her. Apparently. For me, that is.
Unexamined, Righteous One becomes Dead Right. As in dead in the water. Because I’m so busy tending to my authenticity that I lose sight of the bigger picture, the long game, the other things that are important to me.