The Light

Have you ever stood alone on a stage with a single spotlight shining directly at you? That’s the closest I can come to describing what love feels like in my body right now.

The stage is vast. At first glance, there seem to be plenty of places to hide from the audience that is love. And yet, as you duck or cower, the spotlight follows. It catches not only your most obvious features, but your shadows too—those tricky, tucked-away parts we try to hide from others and even from ourselves. Because to see them might mean we have to admit they exist. Or worse, we might have to address them.

Most often, when I’ve felt love’s light bearing down on me with my shadows fully exposed, it came with a kind of heat that overwhelmed me. I would flee to the wings because I didn’t want to or couldn’t stand in that glow. I’ve been burned before. I’ve stood on the wrong stage or neglected the right one.

But lately (and fortunately, I think), I’m waking up to the truth. I’m not built to be an emotional track star. My capacity and, in full transparency, my desire to run from love’s grounded, redemptive power is fading. The spotlights shining on me these days feel less scorching and more like heat therapy. I find myself stepping back into the light, not because I’ve perfected myself, but because I’ve finally accepted that I can be fully exposed and still fully covered.

Love is not just a place to feel; it's a state of being. At its best, it becomes the net beneath the leap, the force that lifts your self-trust and steadies your fears. It allows you to grow into a more secure version of yourself, someone who can hold the trembling that comes with standing in the bright, open stage of life.

I’ve tried to root myself in other things. Some offered short-term relief, but most cracked under the weight of real life. Love—the sacred kind found in family, friends, good lovers, and most urgently, your GOT DAMN self—is a luxury far too often forgotten.

As the old hymnal says, "Love lifted me, when nothing else could help."

I dare you (and myself) to stand in the light of love. Let it do what it does best: show us the way.

Walk in the light.