Fall in love with the innocence.
Our childhood fears of the dark.
Of being exposed. Of showing ourselves,
being seen, coming into the light.

The doubts, the secret pains,
our strange fantasies, feelings we
just don’t know what to do with.
Terrors of the night-time.
The rage that bubbles just under the surface.
The fear that we are not loveable.

The feelings and thoughts we conceal
to maintain the image of ‘me’.
To be good, to be nice, to be spiritual.
To be ‘the one who can hold it all together’.

Fall in love with this secret humanity.
Know that darkness is NOT darkness,
only scared fragments longing to come into the light,
beings who want love, and attention,
and breath, and inclusion in the larger picture of Self.

Do not seek the light, friend.
Simply be the light. Be what you are.
The light of life.
And have the courage to shine fully
on the sore places, the tender places.

Illuminate. Radiate.
Make it safe for the little monsters
to come out of hiding.
Let them know they are beautiful.
And worthy.
And not monsters at all.

– Jeff Foster