Learning to Walk in the Dark by Barbara Brown Taylor

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Learning to Walk in the Dark (Harper One 2014) will stay with me a long time now that I have finally finished it. Barbara Brown Taylor invites readers to join her on her journey to explore what darkness–both physical darkness and metaphysical darkness–has to teach. As I read, I kept stopping to reflect on my own experiences with darkness and wanting to learn more.

I was fascinated by sheer number of facts I didn’t know about physical darkness. Did you know there are three twilights to end each day? Did you know that humans’ sleep patterns changed with the invention of the light bulb (and not just with less time for sleep)?  Did you know that you could dine in the dark in restaurants that block all light while you eat your meal? Did you know that most people in the United States can no longer see the Milky Way or even many stars at all? I can remember seeing the Milky Way once on a Girl Scout camping trip. I have never forgotten the sight and would love to see it again. I want to share it with my daughter and hope we can find a dark enough place on a clear night with a new moon (and nowhere we have to get up and go early the next morning).

I thought even more about the aspects of spiritual darkness Brown explores. My childhood reading was filled with fantasy that pitted good against evil, often in terms of light over dark. Meg, Calvin and Charles Wallace fought the Dark Thing to rescue Meg’s father on Camazotz in A Wrinkle in Time. In Susan Cooper’s The Dark Is Rising, Will joins the Old Ones in the fight of the Light against the forces of the Dark. The Biblical stories and images I grew up with also associate God with Light and evil with darkness. I had heard of St. John’s dark night of the soul (and knew it was an experience I did not want to spend time with), but I didn’t know much of the history of or John’s thinking about the experience. Now I’m not so sure. It still sounds like a difficult experience, but maybe one I could learn from.

I am already seeing changes in myself as a result of reading. I find myself paying more attention to the darkness rather than trying to shine a light through it to shut it out. I’ve always been fascinated with watching sunrises. I took a couple of evenings to watch the sunset. The changing play of light is beautiful–and darkness takes a long time to fall. I’ve also resisted turning on lights in the house after I’ve gone to bed. Once I paid attention (and didn’t flip the light switch), I was amazed at how many lights glow from buttons and dials and even reflect off the clouds from town.

One idea that I am drawn to is that of practicing courage. Yes, there can be things in the darkness that are harmful, but often we let our fears overwhelm us when there is not anything to be afraid of. Even more, we often shield our children from the opportunity to practice being brave by rushing in to turn on physical (or metaphysical) lights for them and for ourselves. I am trying to practice more courage in my life and allow my daughter the opportunity to practice as well. (She is not thrilled with this idea at all.) For me, I would like to experience the “Green Meditaiton” Brown describes from an article she read by Clark Strand. The experiment is to find a place like a shallow cave (or even an apartment building) where you can let natural light and darkness determine your sleep and rest. Maybe as you do, the darkness will listen to you. We have a campsite that is in the woods that I could spend the night at. It would be a good chance to practice courage and meet the dark.

Now that I have read Learning to Walk in the Dark, I want to catch up on Brown’s earlier two books–Leaving Church and The Altar in the World.

What are your experiences with dark?

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2 Comments on Learning to Walk in the Dark by Barbara Brown Taylor

  1. Clark Strand
    March 31, 2015 at 9:15 am (9 years ago)

    You may find my next book of interest then. It’s called WAKING UP TO THE DARK: Ancient a Wisdom for a Sleepless Age, and it comes out April 28.

    Reply
    • Mrs. McGriff
      March 31, 2015 at 12:39 pm (9 years ago)

      Thanks for letting me know about it!

      Reply

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