"The Life Giver", collage by Licia Berry 2006
“Whatever shines should be observed.” -19th-century astronomer William Herschel, discoverer of the planet Uranus
“All that sparkles does not shine.”- common proverb
I’ve been thinking and observing folks in my life lately, whether they are close by or far removed. I notice that some folks “shine” and others don’t. I have been observing my own pattern of being attracted or repelled by them, and trying to understand.
Some folks look shiny, but it is a fake shine…as if applied from the outside; a sort of veneer of what appears to be sparkle, but is more a thin layer of determination to appear powerful, beautiful or holy. I remember watching my mother carefully apply her face make-up, a long ritual that built her up into believing that she was sexy and powerful. Sometimes it worked…others would look at her and see the carefully applied illusion she wanted to create, despite what she was feeling inside.
Sometimes I think shine is also applied by others on the outside who want to idolize the person, such as in the case of celebrities or gurus (or the pope?) I observe that we can want to believe that another person is special (I find this to be true when we aren’t owning the specialness of ourselves), and project our own unclaimed shine onto the object of our attention.
Similarly, when I am identified in my own limited-ness, I can look at someone with the carefully applied shine, and be drawn to it because I think it is real and that they possess something that I don’t.
But true shine comes from the inside; it’s that glow that seems to be coming through the pores of the skin and emanated out beyond the body, but can’t quite be identified by the physical eye. For me, it is more a felt sense and can be seen if my intuitive eyes are open and free of filters.
What am I observing when I see true shine? I feel it is the light that emanates from being “turned on”, the light that comes from life force coursing freely through us, the light from inside. I know it when I see/feel it. The presence of it is unmistakable, and it is pure joy to be in the presence of.
My feeling is that we probably have a good bit of this Divine emanation when we are little…and that many of us slowly cover up our inner light as we buy in to the illusions and lies that we are taught to believe about the realities of earth-living. The greatest of which, in my experience, is that we are separate from Godde and therefore unworthy of Love.
Pain is a great teacher when one is conscious. But it is a great “herder” if we are not; pain will drive us into pens and into corners, and in our effort to get away from it, we cut ourselves off from our larger Being.
My sense is that the more we forget our innate connection to the Divine Light, or life force that we traveled in on, the more closed off we become, the more in the dark we are, and the more lost from our original blueprint and purpose we get.
I have seen folks who are almost black holes, their light is so far removed from sight. Some of them are energy “vampires”, the ones who seek the life force of others because they are so far removed from their own. Others feel like their density is so great that nothing could escape their heavy gravitational field.
I have also seen folks who talk a good game, act as if they are feeling the light, even acting as if they are speaking or teaching from that knowing, when in fact under the surface I feel them flailing about in search of their center. They construct fantastic belief systems and philosophies that are nothing short of brilliant, in a mental way. I feel compassion for these folks until they hurt others from this place of lost-ness…and then I know to avoid them.
I have some beautiful people in my life who shine, not because they have it all figured out, but because they are genuinely seeking to be the most loving people they can be in the world, and are open in that state of not-knowing, paradoxically in the most knowing state we can be in. They are at peace because they are aligned with their soul, and finding their way. Their seeking is honest. I like those people…I want to be around them because I trust them.
In the end, it becomes my choice about how I will interact with the world, how much I will engage with light-filled or not-so-life-filled folks. I find the ones that shine from the inside out to be the ones that I want to hang out with, as they, without effort or word, illicit my own inner light to shine forth.
