Tag: light

Eclipse, Darkness, Apocalypse, and Light (4-8-24)

This is a special eclipse edition of the blog and is about the apocalypse, darkness, and light.

Today is eclipse day, and in Indiana we are fortunate enough to be in the path of totality.  Recently, my family attended a presentation about the eclipse.  During the session, we watched a video that discussed eclipses since ancient times.  The narrator shared that in the days of early civilizations, people were terrified of eclipses.  Once the sky went dark, these people believed it was the beginning of the apocalypse.  They had no idea that the darkness was fleeting and that the light would return. 

My kids were fascinated by this and wondered why people would feel this way.  I told them to imagine that they had no idea what an eclipse was.  I asked them to imagine that the same routine of the sun rising and then setting had occurred over and over and over again.  Then, one day something different happens.  It’s dark when it should be light, and you don’t know how long the darkness will last.  Wouldn’t that be scary?  They agreed it would be.

What does this have to do with life?  I don’t know about you, but my life isn’t always bright and happy all the time.  Sometimes there are periods of darkness.  There are periods of trials, tribulations, sadness, and frustration.  When these periods first start encroaching on light, joy, and happiness, it can feel like it’s going to be that way forever.  It can feel like it’s your own personal apocalypse, the beginning of the end of things.  It can feel like you’ll be stuck in that shadow forever.  However, the darkness is fleeting.  The light is there.  The light is always there.  Sometimes, we just have to be able to make it through the darkness, so we can embrace the light again.

The challenge: Will you remember that the darkness is fleeting?  Will you remember that the light is still there?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Share your Light (1-14-15)

Last week was about mindsets, being a strong dragon, and inspiring others to be strong dragons.  Now that we’re in the right mindset, let’s think more about what we want to do this year.  Dragons get me thinking about fire and light sources, so let’s think this week about developing and sharing our light aka getting our shine on.

If you’re anything like me, when I start thinking of goals for the year one of the things I think about is where I want to improve.  I naturally think about my weaknesses.  At first glance, there isn’t anything wrong with this chain of thinking, but why should I just worry about my weaknesses.  I have an entire collection of things I’m good at, so why I don’t I think about them during this time as well?

This is where the light connection comes into play.  Our light is the collection of our strengths.  These could be skills, personality traits, attitudes, leadership, etc.  Why wouldn’t I make a decision to help me leverage my bright spots?  This is where you can make a decision concerning what you want to do with your light.  Do you want to make it brighter, share it with more people, or both (aka the jackpot scenario)?

For example, you’re good at strategic thinking and you decide to sharpen this skill even more.  You make this strength shine brighter and it helps you throughout the year.  Maybe you have something you are already really good at, so instead you want to share this light with more people.  For example,  maybe you are great at motivating people by recognizing them for their work.  You decide that you want to apply this skill and make an effort to recognize more people.  Share your light.  This example is based off of someone I know who did this last year.  They decided they would write 2 recognition notes every week and send them to different people.  You can bet the farm that people benefited from this person sharing their light.  I was lucky enough to receive one of these notes, and you better believe it put some pep in my stem.

Bottom line, how can you do both?  How can you address a weakness, AND also work on shining your light?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry