Usually, people come in to talk about a a work relationship or something like a loss of a spouse… or they went through a hard breakup and need a place to cry. However, I have dealt with a good amount of bigger and tougher feelings that people have gone through. One month ago, I myself had my own experience which made me think about getting through the dark….

I was working on a manuscript and my sight began to wabble around… I wasn’t sure if I was staring at screens too long. I had been told I had high risk of retinal detachment due to highly myopic eyes. After a couple of years of concern, there was a final “all-clear” on this issue by an opthalmologist and a retinal specialist.

Two weeks after I was “doing well” and given said certainty, 90% of the view from my right eye went dark, as if someone painted over it. Why did this happen in the first place? I have always had extremely myopic eyes. Does this sound familiar to some who saw us doing well as a nation about 1 year ago?

It is worth considering what we may also be nearsighted about, in which there is only the ability to see what is right in front of us at times… and not beyond a narrow view. This is often, where one might become fearful of the unknown in themselves and the world or of how things will unfold in the future.

As what is happening in the world can signify parallels to one’s own trauma or history, I have found that it is very difficult to walk through the dark completely alone. Just as I had been given certainty before half of my personal world went dark, in many ways, being avoidant of real darkness cuts off much personal meaning, can leave us nearsighted, while still not providing real certainty.

When some of the remedy begins to show a healing picture, perhaps keep that farther picture in view. I doubt there is a perfect-seeming view but things do get clearer. Veer away from certainty but believe in being human, with the times of pain or difficulty.