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| How far is a shadow's reach? |
Celie first started talking about A Meet around the holidays. She was watching You Tube videos with her Grammy and Aunt Kate. This one video was just a scene of Christmas lights going on and off backed by music. On this one spot the lights didn't go off because it appeared to be lights from a house in the distance that wasn't part of the lights display. Celie began to say "A Meet! A Meet is onna spot!!" We didn't know what she meant, but figured it to be that "spot" on the video she pointed out, which was weird and perplexing. She has since then gone into an "I'm scared!" stage of sorts where often times she is scared of areas, or the dark, or "things". She hasn't liked the dark since she was young but had never verbalized being scared of anything until 4 to 6 months ago. She started saying A Meet was "onna win'ow" at my parents' house. They have a large bow window in the kitchen and she didn't like it while sitting in her high chair. Was it a reflection in the glass? She has also always said "A Meet is sad!" So far we knew A Meet to be "sad", "onna win'ow" and "onna spot" but had no clue what it really was or why it was so damn melancholy and creepy.
Celie has since then brought up A Meet many many times. She has said it was on our windows, usually at night, which leads you to believe it is a reflection of sorts she is talking about. But, still. WHY is it sad?! Plus, it is very odd to hear the things she has been telling me are "like A Meet". So far it is apparently like the goat in Green Eggs and Ham as well as the little heart shaped pillow the blue haired pet sits on in One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish? What in the hell does this thing look like?! No wonder it's scary! She will also just start telling people about A Meet even when she doesn't say she is actively seeing it, just a random "oh by the way..." in conversation. Last week when my mother-in-law was visiting, I was blissfully using the bathroom alone when I heard her up in the living room telling her about A Meet. It's quite the popular oddity with her lately.
While in the living room on Monday, the sun was coming through the window and throwing a shadow on the floor as it often does that time of day. The tassels of the valance style curtain were forming a dark visually interesting shape on the carpet. Celie pointed at it and said "A Meet! A Meet!" I looked at the floor and wondered what it was she saw in the shapes. I realized she didn't really understand the concept of what a shadow is, how it is made, or where it comes from. She was scared of the shadow, so I moved the tassels on the curtain, being the part of the shadow she was pointing at, showing her how they and the shadow both moved, hopefully showing her how the shadow came from the sun on the curtain. We had played with the sunlight in this window using dangley shiny streamers before, shaking them and playing with the light reflected on the ceiling. She had seen the light, and I hoped that would allow her to understand the dark. (That's a metaphor!!)
After moving the curtain and it's shadow I extended my arm into the light, pointing out my arm moving and the new shadow form that was moving. She seemed to understand and immediately declared, "I needa try it!" She climbed up onto the couch in front of the window that was creating the magic, and began moving her arms, seemingly satisfied that the movement was hers. She extended individual fingers, playing with the changes and locating her shadow hand. She got onto the floor and started stepping on it and walking around. This calmed her fear, and she moved past it not mentioning A Meet again for the moment.
Celie learned that she makes her own shadow and can control it. I learned just how scary reflections can be and how they can be interwoven with shadow, and used to help us to understand the dark spots. She is afraid of A Meet. Reflections can be scary, so can your shadow. It's a different form of yourself that follows you everywhere, but you can control it if you can see it.
Reflections are sometimes intimidating. To the human mind programmed to find order in chaos,they tend to take on forms and shapes...symbols, if you will, and therefore have meaning. They change. Perspective changes them. The image is always different; sometimes it's a horned goat in your face, sometimes it's a cushion to sit on. Reflections come from objects throwing the light source back out onto another object. A passing of the light, in a way, letting the light shine. Reflections should then, theoretically speaking, be positive. They are a vicarious source of light.
Your shadows are dark reflections of your soul in a psychological sense, that you can see if you are backed by light. They are areas of blocked light, where the source can not move through us. Shadows are also intimidating. They show a distorted version of ourselves; a taller tale or a stretched truth. Perhaps if we become more reflective we can better understand our dark side and become more shadowless, bending the light in accordance to our shape and movement, adding our own twist, and then sending it back out to space, rather than blocking the light and creating darkness. Learning to control your darkness, your own shadow, is a milestone at any age.
How far is a shadows reach?
Musing Through,
Missie Sue
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