I remember once, after a fight with my husband, I packed a suitcase and "ran away." I was going to stay the night with a relative and get away from the turmoil in my life.

Through the tears I arrived at the destination city, but my mind was a jumbled mess and I found myself lost and unable to imagine where to go to find my relative’s home.

I remember calling my brother and blurting out the marital fight and the fact that now I was lost and alone in a dark city.

"I feel like such a child," I cried. "I don't know where I am, and I don't know where to go."

At the time, that statement spoke not only of my physical loss of compass but of the state of my life. I felt confused and directionless, and dark clouds threatened to engulf me.

It was then that my brother spoke the words that would point me to my course: "It’s ok to feel like a child,” he said. “We all sometimes do. And it’s when we are in the dark that we are able to find ourselves."

Though I immediately recognized that I had been given profound words of wisdom, I wasn't entirely sure what they meant. "How does one find himself in the dark," I wondered.

The answer came to me from that Voice that exists inside each of us.

"Because it is only in the darkness that you are able to really see yourself."

When it is dark, you can no longer see others. You can no longer see things.

In the darkness we even lose awareness of our external selves and are forced to see what is happening on the inside. What am I feeling? What am I thinking? What are my needs and desires? What am I willing to do to change things?

As creatures born of Light, it is only natural that we seek the light. And when we are cast into darkness we begin to formulate a plan to make our way to the light.

Somewhere, a long time ago, a caveman (or woman), alone in the dark, perhaps afraid of what was happening around him, perhaps lost in the forest and seeking to find his way home, became desperate enough to rub two stick together until he produced fire.

And like the caveman, when we find ourselves alone and afraid in the darkness, we must recognize the opportunity that exists for us to discover within ourselves the tools we need to light our paths back into the light.

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