I have a friend who told me she’s cut all news media from her life. The news on TV, daily newspapers, listening to the radio and so on. She’s deliberately cut it out, because it was too filled with worry, anxiety, dread, crimes, hatred, fear, terror. Too much darkness. She told me she’s choosing light instead. She’s deliberately choosing to surround herself with light. Love. Happiness. Generosity. Care and concern. She says, if there’s something going on that she really needs to know, she’ll be told. Or, she can ask.
What’s this thing about Panama-papers?
What’s happened in Brussels?
What went down in Orlando?
When she’s told, she knows enough. She doesn’t then dive headfirst into the news sites, to find out all the gory details. It’s enough to be told, to have an inkling.
There’s been a revelation that many people we thought we could trust, have been hiding money in Panama. Investigative journalism uncovered a bunch of papers revealing names and companies, and that’s what the Panama-papers refers to.
Bombs went off, killing people. In Brussels as well as at the airport.
A mass-shooting at a night club, killing fifty people.
That’s enough. She need not know more than that.
Because she chooses light. Over darkness.
More darkness might smother the light. Whereas more light is the only thing that can affect the darkness, make it less dark.
Makes me wonder. Perhaps it’s time for me to look at my news intake as well. Or at least, balance it more? Make sure my daily diet consists of a lot more light than darkness. If nothing else, because it makes me better equipped to spread light into the world. If I get a light-recharge, so to speak, I can share my light, gladly, generously. Spread it around, and perhaps, light up a few dark alleyways?
First published on my blog on June 19th, 2016: https://helenaroth.com/doing-gentle-23-dare-to-choose-light-over-darkness/
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Audio production: Caspian Almerud
Photography: Anders Roos http://www.andersroos.nu/
Soundtrack: Olof Jennfors Ljudtjänst http://jennforsljud.se/