Dark Night of the Soul
“The human spirit holds the key to beauty and wonder. But sometimes things fall dark and quiet and become empty; like an echo in a lifeless room. Sometimes the human spirit embodies hope. We find new life in dead places and see the joy that can be found in overcoming misfortune. But sometimes hope feels far and distant. Sometimes you can’t seem to grab onto the rope hanging out in front of you, no matter how hard you try and how desperately you reach. And that’s okay.” ~ Madina Wa Chege
That dark, quiet, and empty place where nothing lives is what I call a ‘dark night of the soul.’ Eckhart Tolle defines it as the collapse of one’s perceived meaning in life. It is characterized by a deep sense of meaninglessness and is close to what is conventionally called ‘depression’.
It may be triggered by the death of a close person for example a child or spouse or what is considered a monumental loss such as divorce or job loss, or a natural catastrophe that wipes out a person’s worldly possessions. It is a tearing down of the meaning you had given your life based on your activities, achievements, relationships or direction you were pursuing in life.
As a creative, I realize that I go through this phase in a small way with each project I complete. This is because the creative process is so all-consuming from the imagination stage to the last step of execution. Every process owns you and you become one with it to an extent that when it is now complete and a separate entity from yourself, the estrangement can feel like a death of part of self, and some confusion ensues before another project is conceptualized to take the place of the completed one.
This is however not the kind of emptiness that the dark night of the soul refers to. And that is a place I have been to severally. It is a place of growth, pain, loneliness, clarity, death, rebirth. Your worldview is shattered, you feel completely alone in an unending vastness, you have a sharper sense of your mortality and a stronger seeking after the meaning of your life – because suddenly you’d rather be dead than continue living a purpose-less life. It is both a place of death, as well as a place of re-birth.
For some people, this process goes on and on. Others keep coming up and going back again. Some just seem to shoot out in a new phase of re-birth and thrive from there on. It is an individual process and no one can define your path for you.
As the writer of the post said, sometimes hope feels far and distant and that’s okay. The main thing is to keep seeking. Sleep if you must, but don’t give up. Somewhere in that vast nothingness lies the clarity and purpose you seek, if you will only keep seeking. “Ask and keep on asking and it will be given to you; seek and keep on seeking and you will find; knock and keep on knocking and the door will be opened to you.” Matthew 7:7 AMP
“If we never experience the chill of a dark winter, it is very unlikely that we will ever cherish the warmth of a bright summer’s day. Nothing stimulates our appetite for the simple joys of life more than the starvation caused by sadness or desperation. In order to complete our amazing life journey successfully, it is vital that we turn each and every dark tear into a pearl of wisdom, and find the blessing in every curse.” ~ Anthon St. Maarten
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