Strength in the Shadow

The shadow doesn’t just consist of all the things we reject and vilify… It also contains all the things we say we aren’t, but really are. Our shadow isn’t just the rejected parts of ourselves, it’s also partly the shadow of the very things we hold dear.

If you hotly espouse a moral code you deeply believe in… you will probably do the very thing you say you hate. Because no one can be perfect, because there will always be times that we can’t carry out our values without great pain and difficulty, we lie to ourselves and tell ourselves we don’t do it.

The more we insist on perfection… the less perfect we will be, and the less we will be capable of seeing our failures. The more we hate unkindness… the less kind we will be, and the less we will be able to face our hatefulness and selfishness. The more we hate immorality… the less moral we will be, and the less we will be able to face our human weakness.

Perfection is inflation, it’s only suitable for the Gods. Facing and integrating our shadow gives our personality weight and strength; we can’t be pushed off our center, it gives us resilience and compassion, and connects us with each other in our human fallibility.