As I toted my favorite three books on the shadow up and down the stairs this week, moving them from my reading chair on ground level to my desk on the lower level, this question surfaced: “How are readers going to find their shadows?”
I haven’t fully answered this question. I haven’t finished reading the books. This is a work in progress;
I want to understand how to locate the contents of my shadow too.
To explore this question, let us explore the mystery and play with an analogy:
Let’s say every month a bill from U-Haul Storage Units arrives in your mailbox. You don’t know you have a storage unit. Because you are really busy and the charge is not that much and you decide it is an error, the first month you treat it as junk mail and throw it in the recycle bin.
The bill keeps coming each month and you pitch it into recycle bin. After several months, you open it. You notice that past due charges have been added to the monthly service fee plus interest.
Frustrated, you call U-Haul. They inform you they have in their possession a signed contract with your name on it. You Google their address, drive over there, get the key and with key in hand, go to the unit that is supposedly yours.
The unit is full of stuff – some of it is quite nice stuff you have no memory of and other stuff from your past life that doesn’t fit well with who you are now.
You sort through the contents, organizing the things you can use now, call friends for help, throw out what you no longer need. The question is partially solved but the mystery remains.
You still don’t know how the stuff accumulated but you realize that by paying attention, you have cleaned it out. You have new stuff to use and don’t have to worry any longer about the rotten old stuff.
Most of you have astutely deduced that the storage unit represents the shadow and the contents are the unresolved feelings stored there.
Shadow work comes from the most unusual places. Stay tuned!
What helps you find your shadow? Is it packed too tightly away to access? Let us know your thoughts on the blog in the comments section or shoot me an email.
Thanks for exploring the mystery with me. Nicky Mendenhall
Let’s say every month a bill from U-Haul Storage Units arrives in your mailbox. You don’t know you have a storage unit. Because you are really busy and the charge is not that much and you decide it is an error, the first month you treat it as junk mail and throw it in the recycle bin.
The bill keeps coming each month and you pitch it into recycle bin. After several months, you open it. You notice that past due charges have been added to the monthly service fee plus interest.
Frustrated, you call U-Haul. They inform you they have in their possession a signed contract with your name on it. You Google their address, drive over there, get the key and with key in hand, go to the unit that is supposedly yours.
The unit is full of stuff – some of it is quite nice stuff you have no memory of and other stuff from your past life that doesn’t fit well with who you are now.
You sort through the contents, organizing the things you can use now, call friends for help, throw out what you no longer need. The question is partially solved but the mystery remains.
You still don’t know how the stuff accumulated but you realize that by paying attention, you have cleaned it out. You have new stuff to use and don’t have to worry any longer about the rotten old stuff.
Most of you have astutely deduced that the storage unit represents the shadow and the contents are the unresolved feelings stored there.
Shadow work comes from the most unusual places. Stay tuned!
What helps you find your shadow? Is it packed too tightly away to access? Let us know your thoughts on the blog in the comments section or shoot me an email.
Thanks for exploring the mystery with me. Nicky Mendenhall
2 comments
Great analogy, Nicky! Very helpful.
Great to hear from you Stacy. Thank you for your comment!
Nicky
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