Darkness

"Someone I loved once gave me a box full of darkness.  It took me years to understand that this, too, was a gift."  Mary Oliver

It is sometimes hard, to see what can be a gift to us.  Even the hardest of things that life may throw our way can be a gift.

It can give us the strength to get through the things that we face, it can give us the courage to do the same.

But it can also give us the ability to see that strength and courage exists within ~ often we do not feel strong, we do not feel courageous, and often we aren't able to acknowledge it until we come out of the other side of that darkness.

It is often difficult, when that darkness comes from someone we loved, or even love.  It is difficult when the "darkness" that we face is something that ultimately we cannot control.  It is difficult when we face a time in life when that darkness covers everything like a shroud, preventing us from "living", allowing us merely to survive.

It can be incredibly difficult when we are lost in the darkness to see a light at the end of the tunnel.  At times, it is hard to believe that there even is a light.  But, we know that there is.  We know that this too will pass.  Somehow.

And yet, it is hard to understand (or certainly is at the time) when the gift is one of darkness.  It is hard to understand when that gift of darkness comes from someone we love.  From someone who loves in return.  

Only afterwards, with hindsight, with clarity can we begin to see the gifts from that darkness.  We see it when the light begins to return, when we are or have reached the end of that tunnel.

However dark.

It was a gift that was given.