Darkness Deserves Gratitude

Today I am grateful for friendly people, light switches in familiar places, working electricity, and this quote:

"Darkness deserves gratitude. It is the alleluia point at which we learn to understand 

that all growth does not take place in the sunlight.'

(Joan Chittister)

Darkness deserves gratitude. Some of the most difficult and trying times in my life have yielded the most expansive transformations. Alcoholism could have killed me. I could have killed myself. Cancer could have killed me years ago. 

It has not all been smooth sailing. I still need daily work for my daily disease, for my human frailties and shortcomings. But I have survived darkness in many ways. My alleluia points have been very painful and also very profound. Because of them, I am not the person I was. I am healthier and more whole. 

Darkness deserves gratitude. Without it, we don't gain the perspective that brings those alleluia points. Without it, we aren't amazed and awed by what is revealed when the light awakens or reawakens within us.

A year ago, my sister Mary Jo was heading into darkness as metastatic breast cancer spread further in her bones and throughout her body. Yet, I also witnessed my sister still growing and letting go in new ways. Because of her transformation in the last months of her life, as her body wasted away, other parts of her emerged from the darkness. She left more of herself with us when she left.

Yes, the darkness deserves gratitude. Yes, you and I are strong enough to handle the darkness and also worthy of the gratefulness. What are some of your alleluia points? Acknowledge them today.