Illumination in Darkness
Passage 2 from Stephen Mitchell’s English translation of Tao Te Ching
Have you ever heard the expression “left in the dark?”
It usually means when someone is left without sufficient information and struggles because of it.
While I am a person who doesn’t like to be left in the dark myself, sometimes I have found the dark to be illuminating.
Let me explain.
When we enter a situation with our own biases, we might accidentally let our own expectations outshine
new possibilities.
Take planning for example.
While planning can help things run smoothly, when we rely solely the plans we make,
we may feel more out of control than when we loosely rely on plans if the plans were to fall through.
Yet even when plans fall through, it isn’t fruitless to have them because the plan is the guiding light.
Plans shows us where we need to strengthen our strategy or spend resources differently based on the cracks
and holes that will inevitably appear in the plan we created at the start.
Like a light shining through a winding tunnel, the light is able to bend through cracks and curves
and somehow finds its way to the tunnel’s end.
It eventually shows us where to go and step-by-step a path is revealed ahead of us until we can also see the end of the tunnel.
The journey of life and leading a mission-driven business or non-profit is unpredictable,
full of unexpected forks and off-road trails.
As pioneers of a new world, it is our responsibility to steward uncertainty.
And so with that comes the realization of the words
“Darkness within darkness is the gateway to all understanding.”
When we have less expectations and not only accept all outcomes, but steward them,
it gives birth to a strong, dignified calmness for whatever arises.
This is what authority looks like as a leader.
Being comfortable with being in the dark and experiencing everything as it finds us
can feel unsettling at first, but darkness also gives us space to find footing
and feel different depths of our surroundings.
This is what becoming stronger looks like.
Instead of having all the answers about “how to do x in business” or “how to get y results,”
asking questions to be filled with knowledge shows us a way without needing to know the way.
This is how the mission becomes adaptable to any market, economy or tool.
Once we can adapt, like a dance, the missions can shape the world while it also shapes us,
in the same way a tiny stream becomes a mighty river.
Each time the stream flowed with what existed, it developed authority; each time the stream grasped a new foothold on the rocks, it became stronger; each time the stream had to learn a new path, it developed adaptability; and as it showed up time and time again with the only intention of being there wherever it was, it developed resilience.
By Arabella Davis
How do you feel about darkness? Have you found it to be illuminating?
