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I had a pretty remarkable realization yesterday.  I was out with my nephew who has been holidaying with me.  We were in a part of the Gold Coast hinterland viewing a tunnel of historic interest built in 1885.  It was a rather short tunnel, about 30 meters.

So, there I stood, a short distance in front of the entrance of the tunnel as my nephew started walking ahead.  I was struck by the stark contrast between the darkness inside the tunnel and the brilliant afternoon sunlight at either ends of it.

Despite the contrast, however, I was able to see the tall, uneven, yellowy-brown sides of the tunnel and the darker dirt ground.  But it was only as I began walking through the tunnel myself that the impact of this contrast hit me.

As I approached the middle of the tunnel, wondering aloud to my nephew how cave men and women must have lived in similar cavities like this hundreds of thousands of years ago, I was stopped abruptly in my tracks.

I couldn’t see anything around me as the darkness was thick and full.  I immediately began to feel fearful.  This despite the two bright sun-drenched entrances to this short tunnel that were in full view to me!

I was overcome with amazement and incredulity.  Here I was, in the middle of this very short tunnel feeling afraid of the darkness when, only seconds ago, I had been at the entrance able to see the inside of the tunnel, a view which gave me absolutely no reason to fear being inside it!

For a few seconds, I remained motionless, afraid to put a foot forward… in case…Fortunately, I became quickly aware of the absurdity of my fear.  For goodness sake, I thought, I only need to look up and focus on the….

light at the end of the tunnel

to give me the direction I need to keep walking!

You cannot imagine my astonishment and the awe I felt upon this most direct, palpable realization of a truth that had thus far remained largely metaphorical in my mind…

I can tell you that there have been many, many moments or periods in my life when I have felt rooted to the ground with fear, sadness and desolation.  At those times, I have forgotten to simply look up and focus on the light, focusing instead on the very fear, sadness and desolation that was preventing me from moving forward!

Increasingly, however, through meditation/mindfulness i.e. by maintaining an awareness of what my mind is doing, I am able to much more rapidly recognize when I have lost sight of the light at the end of the tunnel and therefore, quickly continue to move in the direction of what I desire, which is to be happy!

Admittedly, over the years, my tendency to lose sight of the light at the end of the tunnel has been largely replaced by my desire to focus on being happy!

So, how about you?  Do you find yourself losing sight of the light at the end of the tunnel?  How do you recover from such ‘blindness’ and how long does it take you?

Blessings!

Lucy Lopez

Awakening to Happiness!

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