The Light

What does it mean to be enlightened? My perspective on the twisted journey starts right here.

I always thought to be enlightened meant I had to be this perfect person, this entity that, with all of life's challenges, would always choose the "right" way. The positive way. The way that everyone expects. But for me, it was the total opposite.

What I realized is that to be enlightened, to find the light, you must first grow through the darkness. Yes, I said GROW. There is a saying: Without darkness, there is no light. This rings true to my own personal experience as I am sure it is with most people who go through this process.

If I were to have been in the light my whole life, I would not know the joys and the beauty of what the light holds. Just like every day life, we can take things for granted without really knowing that we are doing it. In this case, your life is an experience, a dance if you will.

If we did not experience hurt, or loss, or betrayal then we would not feel love so sweet, or connection so deep, or see the happiness in having healthy relationships.

It's hard to say "I am glad I went through what I had to go through to get here" but if I sit and look back at all I have been through and realize that I am still here, still pushing through, then I start to notice the synchronicity in each decision I have ever made and each detail shows me that they were still good choices. Even though they may not have been what society believes is right, I got to experience things and have memories that I will get to take with me to last my whole lifetime and be proud of.

Sometimes even so, we flow towards peace that will last past our lifetime and shed the limitless light of love into our future generations just from our thoughts, communication, and commitment.

Would life be different if I had made other decisions? Most likely yes. But I still would have had to go through the dark in different ways to see the light. I would not have some of the happiest moments of my life if I were to have chosen another path.

Each person goes through a transition of enlightenment. Sometimes it's when you're younger, having a hard childhood. Sometimes it's in your early adulthood when you decide to change paths than what you dreamed of your whole life. Maybe because of things that have happened to you, or maybe because you just decided to go a different way or choose a different path. Sometimes it's when you're older and you're watching your family grow into their own and you wonder where you fit in. Either way, we all end up enlightened one way or another. We all end up with a little bit of light.

Becoming enlightened is not a pretty road, nor is it a fad to boast over. It's hard, it's ugly, and sometimes it can break you to your core. But you take each piece, each memory, each experience, and you mold it into a beautiful masterpiece. What's interesting about the enlightening process is that it can happen over and over and over again. Each time you pick up the pieces and each time you heal yourself, you make a collage of imperfect bliss so that when this process is over, you have so many pieces of you, so many different versions of you that the light will finally shine through and you will see a great big work of art. You will have felt such an array of emotions that you cannot deny that something miraculous just happened. You became the light.

Don't let the process of enlightenment scare you. It is part of our journey to learn and to feel. It is a part of our identity of what we become from our experiences. How you utilize the process is what matters. To be aware of all of this IS enlightenment.

Enjoy the journey. It may be a rough road, but you will get through this. You always do.

I will be adding to this process as I go along, as each stage is different. I hope to have helped someone out with this message.

Love and Light,

Cristie Porter