The Dark Night of the Soul

Have you ever felt suspended in midair? As though someone pressed the pause button on some cosmic remote in your life and didn’t bother to consult with you first?

At those times in my life when I have experienced what is commonly called, “The Dark Night of the Soul,” I have keenly felt this kind of gap in time, a girl interrupted.

The hiatus is rarely restful though. It feels more like hanging precariously onto the edge of a cliff for dear life.

I admit, there have been quite a few of these nights thus far. When you live long enough, they tend to come back around cyclically. They are part of our individual rites of passage as souls living in a body.

They are normal.

I believe that these dark hours come for a reason. They are the times that serve to propel us into a new direction or new phase of our lives. These shadowy and overcast days are often prompted by an unexpected event that shakes us to our very core. This is when we start to question everything we have believed about life up until that point. We wonder if we will ever find the ground again after the rug is pulled out from underneath us.

It’s a natural part of the journey of life. We must earn our wings in order to fly. These foggy times are like the cocoon of life when we devolve into a caterpillar soup so that we can, after the hiatus, return as a butterfly, with the power to leave the limitations of the tree we once crawled upon and fly away to see some far-off place we never even dreamed existed.

I wonder… have you experienced a dark night of the soul? Are you having one now?

I know what it is like to feel as though the world is devoid of hope and to slog through the day.

So many times in my life, I have found myself looking up at the night sky, whispering into the blackness, “Encourage me, please.”  I have vowed to myself and God in these times that, if I make it through, I will be sure to devote my life and song to being that voice of encouragement that I have longed for. I have been grateful for the Voice for Love that has come when I am alone at 3 a.m. and feeling lost, and then a song, a helpful video, a book, or a blog post found its way to me.

On the other side of my own dark night of the soul, I hope that my words now can also be the bearer of hope and perspective that I longed for in those times. I want so much to be the voice in the darkest night that shines a little light on the obscured path. I desire to offer the words that remind us to not give up, and that this shadow will pass. We will stand up again, in the light, strong and vital.

I long to offer up a word tonic that brings peace, light, empowerment, and hope in the dead of the dark.

If you are feeling lost or discouraged, my friend, don’t give up. You have so much coming toward you that is beautiful and you are going to create a life you love out of these shattered pieces. On the other side of this is illumination and creation. You will be sustained through it. God will always make a way where there is no way. 

If you have moved beyond the dark night yourself, remember that someone nearby might be having one and you can be that bit of encouragement by just a smile or the offering of kindness. It takes so little to feel encouraged. 

And I hope that you will find Divine Moonshine to be a sanctuary of hope, peace, and encouragement on your journey, wherever you are.

Thank you for being here. 

Distilled into three simple words to live by: Don’t give up.