It is in the shadow of our past that we learn to experience the pain as a journey. What we have gone through was necessary to produce the now that explains what we lost, why we left, how we learned, who we loved, where we’ve been, and when it was time to move on. In those shadows are our purposes, are our platforms, in those dark places are our podiums, are our peace. There, behind us, is where we discovered our strengths and decided our ability to fight for reasons or even the excuses that we found refuge in to hide us from uncomfortable or unfamiliar destiny or fates. We created those shadows by where we stood or sat, where we positioned ourselves, by virtue of where we chose to stand. We have carried those shadows and filled spaces with them. They have become our ghost, they hang on and haunt us to no end at even the hint of any light that finds its way towards our day. They have become our definition by meaning us well beyond our nows. They are of course, shadows. And those shadows create the shade that cover those that come behind us from the burning sun of exercise and experience unnecessary. It is in the shadows of our troubles that innocence may rest in the education of history. There, in the midst of our mistakes, our shadows, while they are gullible and naive, youth and immaturity may be guided and guarded for the good of protection against the shadows that are to come. They will learn in that dark to recognize what is and what is in light. They will become the stronger that we were only ambitious of, the wiser that we curiously suggested, and the courageous that our fears yearned to be. In the shadows. In our shadows.

-see

©2013 Cornelious “See” Flowers