Some of you may have already seen these photos and read the below. I’m okay with that. It was a time when God worked some mighty wonders in me, inspired me beyond belief and introduced me to my husband. In a quest and request to enter into a similar realm, I’m digging up what got me there in the first place: South Africa. Raw, creative writing. Photojournalism. I hope you enjoy this little journey from the past as much as I am 🙂 For more of our photojournalism, visit limelifephoto.com.
Shadows make the light show
August 12, 2008
I think it is why we are here
to notice flickers of the divine, like dust motes on sunbeams in your dusty kitchen.
Without all the shade and shadows, you would miss the beauty of the veil.
Shadows make the light show.
-Anne Lamott
I felt like was 6 again. Curled up so tightly with the covers pulled over my head, making the dark room that much darker. I had, yet again, absurdly created in my mind someone sneaking around my upstairs bedroom. His big, black robber boots dirtying my mustard-yellow carpet. The shadows of the night scared me. But my imagination scared me more. I did not dare peek out. I held tight that tent of blankets. Too afraid of what the light might bring.
It was about 1:30 in the afternoon last Friday, and 12 of us were crammed in a room with just as many piles of HIV/AIDS-education pamphlets (most written in Xhosa) and three clinic assistants. The bars on the window bred a sense of suffocation and divided the sun rays so they shone on HIV/AIDS for the 75-minute counseling session. Nurse informed us, with the perfect austerity of one working in an HIV/AIDS center, that counseling was the first step of getting tested at the Mbekweni clinic. So, she packed us into the tiny room of shadows and light. And reality clawed through the tent of blankets.
I was a spectator at a brutal sporting match; one where you just can not help but root for the underdogs: the young women stripped down to such a susceptible state. The questions and answers flew back and forth. Raw facts and hardcore truths came pounding down. The sun beamed in, exposing every speck of dirt. HIV/AIDS glared from the pamphlets into their eyes. The underdogs packed every punch with apprehension and inquisition. The experienced team of nurses swung back with truth and encouragement. Eventually, the worry gave way to knowledge. Community rumors were demystified. The once-suffocating heat of the room was now cozy and comforting. The girls breathed deeper breaths. Fear even cracked a smile.
It is easy to let your mind run away with your life and allow darkness to settle in. Especially when your life is actually at stake and it is not just dreamed up by your crude imagination. These young Xhosa women know black-booted crooks may have taken up residency in their bodies, plotting to steal immune systems and dirty their future dreams. And the entirety of the shadow is yet to be exposed in test results. But that tiny, cozy room of hope and sisterhood would have never been revealed if it were not for the daunting darkness. It was the shadow that made the light show. And if we continue to tear through blankets of fear, we are bound to recognize the next glimmer of light is dead-center in the darkness.
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