"Our shadow is somehow the other side of our gift. If Mercury is our gift-image, I guess I would have to say that Icarus is our shadow-image. As you may remember, Icarus is the other mythological son with wings, but his inflated self-image leads him to fly too close to the sun, revealing and melting the wax that holds his wings together. His pride, his non-listening, his false self-assurance are shown forth as he crashes into the sea."(R.Rohr "Radical Grace" p. 268)
I remember this myth from elementary school, but I probably missed the moral of the story. If I recall the young man didn't heed the warnings of his father not to fly too close to the sun. And because he can fly, the wings do work, he does. But he forgets the boundaries, the limitations of most things and the results are disastrous.
We want to encourage others to spread their wings, achieve great things etc. We may also have heard and responded to such challenges and risen to great things. But what happens when everything always goes right? When there are no parameters set, or when we succeed to soon? That is the time when perhaps our shadow side takes over. Our pride refuses to allow others to give advice, hey I know everything. I can do anything, I have no limits. As soon as this becomes my mantra with no moment to pause and reflect the crash and burn is going to probably be incredible.
But this is not a warning to shrink back. It is not a warning not to believe in yourself. It is an invitation to use a little bit of self-awareness to know when to stop. To know when enough has happened. To enjoy successes without having to prove how much more you can do.
Blessings,
Ed
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment