Latest / Forged In The Dark / The Dark Is a Powerful Teacher
Transcript
- Forged In The Dark: What gets forged in the dark determines everything that happens in the light. The dark is a powerful teacher where you learn what cannot be learned in the light. So today we are going to the dark side. And of course, I have stories here. Welcome to Forged in the Dark. I'm your host, Jamie. Take a breath. Let's dig in. Now the other day I was working on my back porch and I mistook a butterfly. No, no, no. I mistook a moth for a butterfly until it landed on the window screen beside me. And I thought, how interesting. Because we all know the story of the butterfly's transformation, or I should say the Caterpillar going into the cocoon coming out a butterfly. It's everywhere. You know the story. But do you know that moths for 300 million years have been navigating in the dark, seeking light that they cannot see? For three hundred million years, moths have been finding. The light in the dark, not because they see it, because they know it's there. They trust it's there. And of course, this reminded me. this reminded me of a quote a friend sent me just two weeks before I launched this whole podcast. Not this episode, but the podcast. I I shared the name. And and they sent me two quotes. One was an Alan Watts quote, and one was a Bain quote. But as I sat there on my porch, I couldn't help but compare this moth to Bane. Because moths only know darkness and they're attracted to the light. They seek the light. Bane in the dark night rises, and I want to be careful to Not get too close to the actual quote because I don't know it verbatim. But Bain is expressing how the light is blinding because all he's ever known is dark. And and I hope you're not one of those per one of those people that that's only ever known dark because you are not a butterfly, and you are not a moth, and you are not. Bane and the dark seasons are not there to break you, they're there to mold you, they're there to shape you, they're there to refine you. But even with that, you are not designed to live in the dark. And and who has the time that the caterpillar has to go in the cocoon, do all the work, and come out perfectly healed? That's just not the way this stuff works. I do find it fascinating how all of these stories come together though. Because somewhere, somewhere between the butterfly, the moth, and bane is you. And you are navigating life in the light and doing work in the dark. And the dark, the most powerful teacher. The the light is where everyone sees the work that you're doing. But the dark teaches you things that only can be learned there, that can only be learned in the forge. Resilience, self-trust, boundaries, standards. This is what you learn in the refining process. So let's take this, let's go directly to the forge. Think a and I don't know why, but for me when I think of the forge, I think more like medieval. I think I think dark, I think cave like cave like I think cobblestone. I I imagine this big fire and this this this big bulky sweaty ironworker that that that puts the iron into the fire and it is Not a gentle process. It's actually pretty violent. The ironworker will pound and pound and heat and pound and shape and mold until what comes out on the other side is not recognizable. It it it's a different shape. It might it might be a slightly different color. But what it is is not what went in. It is sharper. It is more resilient. It is stronger. Now I just shared this with someone the other day. I came out forge. With a suit of armor. But that armor is the boundaries and the standards I just mentioned. What you learn in the forge, in the fire, in the refining process is what you need to learn to fully step into who you are becoming. The lessons, the hardships, and again. I don't know about you. I can only speak from my personal experience. But but some of my biggest lessons in life were learned in the dark, in the forge. The seasons of the most growth have happened under fire. And Some of my best work has been produced in the hardest seasons. The dark has a purpose. Your job is not to live in the forge. It's not to live in the fire. It's how to learn to navigate the space where you are in the forge. And in the light. This is what we can learn from the moth, right? Because I I watched this what I thought was a butterfly. Wings spread. Beautiful. And then it landed on the screen where there was light on the other side. This moth. I mean, I don't know about you, but I think of moths eating my sweaters. That's really all I thought about moths until I did the research. But moths for 300 million years have been seeking the light. This moth was fluttering around in the in in the sunshine and then rusting on the screen, seeking the light. How can you seek the light when you're in the dark? What changes do you need to make to your life today where you can be in the forge, in the refining process, and also living in the light? Because that really is the work here. The this is not about living in the dark. It's not about surviving. The dark. It's about trusting that the light is still there. It's about doing the work no one sees because you know how you show up to the world by doing the work. And this again isn't just for the hard seasons. It's for the hard habits. It is the daily meditation, the daily prayer, the daily moving your body, the daily making healthy choices. The work that done that is done in the dark isn't always grieving. It isn't always the pain. But how do you let the pain be the be the teacher? How do you allow the pain, the grief, the hard seasons to mold you and shape you not into something harsh, but something that is strong, that is powerful. That I mean, only you, only you know what you've survived. You know the light you produce from the time you've spent in the dark. The dark is a powerful teacher. And what you learn there cannot be learned in the light. How you present to the world in the light might just be because of what you learned in the dark or what you didn't learn. If you're still there, if you're still in the dark, be like the moth and find the light. Okay? That's what I have for you today. ⁓ until next time.