Finding stars in the midst of Darkness

 I hope each of you reading this find ways to see the Stars in your Darkness as Dr. King reminds us we can achieve!


As Jews we read Torah (The Five books of Moses) in sections. Since Judaism, Christianity and Islam make up the three Abrahamic religions, so I assume perhaps all three read the Holy Scriptures in sections.

In America, the 3rd weekend of January is also know as Martin Luther King Jr. weekend, and then Monday is a Federally recognized holiday. In 2021, the Saturday reading of Torah was EXODUS 10:1-13:16. This chapter and verses speak of the last three of the of the ten plagues which God bestowed on Egypt when Pharaoh kept saying NO each time Moses asked LET MY PEOPLE GO. The second to last plague is DARKNESS. Shortly after returning from services, this quote was in an email.

The message Dr. King had made saying "Only in Darkness can you see the stars" was not lost on me. I was healing from Brain Cancer surgery I had in February 2020, days before Global pandemic shutdown. My Darkness was fear. All my focus was worry of more Cancer being found in 7 weeks at my one year post-operative MRI.

Every Passover, I ponder how the ten plagues relate to modern society. I had always interpreted the plague of Darkness in a variety of ways: blindness, depression, the weight of grief/mourning, brain fog & memory loss, hunger, caregiver burnout and the immobility when stuck in Fear. This particular year, I was thinking of the angry actions of violence that occurred in Washington on January 6th, this political and civil unrest was another form of modern "Darkness".

Returning to the Bible, I always assumed that Darkness was likely a Solar Eclipse. The Plague seemed to have an easy scientific reason for occurring. Several years ago, I was blessed to fully experience being in the path of the Solar Eclipse. In the midst of the 2017 Solar Eclipse, I was keenly aware the sounds of Nature immediately slowed as the sky began to turn into dusk at high noon. Noises of birds chirping and other animals moving in the brush completely went quiet once full Darkness occurred, only to become audible again once the light mimicked that of Dawn and was slowing returning to Daylight. The sounds of nature became audible "Stars" awakening my soul.

Now in May of 2022. it is clear the eclipse of Darkness has been the long Covid pandemic and the loss of lives, jobs, housing, and more health complications. I hope the waves of Covid will truly shift with vaccinations and heard immunity. I hope the Darkness which many of us begin to feel these stars, as the slowly shifts and brings in more light.

The war in the Ukraine certainly is a plague of Darkness!

Wrapping up, another Darkness I experience is awareness I am an extrovert forced to live an Introverted and isolated life. Being around my family, my friends certainly are stars. Yet meeting random strangers along my journey every day was one way I previously could bring light to my soul. Even while struggling with screentime limitations, I have found stars in the virtual world through InterNations and LunchClub. These have been rays of sunshine to my extroverted soul. There are so many lessons we truly can learn from nature and it is my wish that you pause and reflect on your personal Darkness, past or present, and where are the stars that light up your life? What and/or who makes your eyes have twinkle in them? How can you do more to focus on these people, places and things when you feel a blanket of Darkness approach or fulling being absorbed in it?

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