Hall of shadows

In, Nevermoor, her incredible series of fantasy books for children Jessica Townsend has created a delightful magical world. And like all good fantasy it is far more truthful than that facts ever could be.  A magical hotel with all sorts of magical rooms, that appear, disappear and change. The one I want to talk about today is called the Hall of Shadows. The halls of shadows is a room with a candle at the heart of it. When the children use it to cast shadows on the wall, they turn scary. 

“Hmm. It's a scary shadow, you say?"

"They're all scary. Even if you make a nice one, like a kitten, it'll turn into a man-eating tiger or something. It's like they're trying to be scary."

"That makes sense."

Morrigan was surprised. "Does it?"

"Shadows are shadows, Miss Crow." His eyes reflected the moonlight. "They want to be dark.”

― Jessica Townsend, The Trials of Morrigan Crow

I realised yesterday, what she is describing is an anxious mind - every uncertainty and doubt takes a life of its own, and nothing can ever end well. 'Shadows are shadows, Miss Crow, they like to be dark', says someone in her book, and isn't that true!? 

I had a rough night with anxiety last night - it felt that the world was getting definitely worse - what with environmental and human wars - new wars and the ones that have been going on for years. That I would end up poor and alone, in a world full of tortured people and others obscenely rich who will believe they deserve it all. 

When did I lose the faith?

Yesterday in the middle of this madness, while searching for something to comfort me, and after eating about two fistfuls of chips that definitely helped, I came across something that said, waves go up and down and we may as well learn to surf. And I reminded myself that all lives have their ups and downs... that life is never a journey spiralling down indefinitely - for no one.