Today I went walking and found myself at an abandoned house I became aware of recently. I have kept this discovery quiet so I could return privately to explore and wonder at how someone could desert a place so obviously once treasured. It doesn’t take long to recognize that this intriguing place is owned by a person who had great hopes and dreams that were suddenly discarded. It is as if a year or two ago the owner simply closed the blinds and doors, walked away, and forgot.

There is too much of everything in this house. Food once meant to nourish now sits unrecognizable and waits to be removed. Signs everywhere suggest generations of diversity, hardship, determination, and love around this house. Images of raising children and having fun…framed symbols of graduations, marriages, births…broken picture frames…a wedding album torn in two…obituary clippings. This house tells a rich story of love and loss without uttering a word.

Then I found it! In the corner there was a light. When I explored further, I discovered a prism reflecting the sun’s rays from a crack in the blinds. This prism sent light shining brilliantly and symbolically upward and I took this as my sign.

You see I abandoned this house when the pain became too strong. This house is my body. I have opened the door to awareness and begun regularly bringing curiosity, love, and spiritual Light to the darkness I find inside. I will continue the diligent process of filling this house with hope, love, and Light. I will work hard to carefully examine all that I find here and consciously choose what to keep and what to discard. I am once again home in my body and will not abandon it until another Light beckons.