Mist and Shadows
“Home is behind the world ahead,
And there are many paths to tread,
Through shadows to the edge of night,
Until the stars are all alight.”
“Mist and shadows, cloud and shade—
All shall fade, all shall fade.”
Follow the link below to hear the song:
https://www.facebook.com/reel/1307202833541080/
Lyrics and Music from Lord of the Rings, 2003
Sung by Malinda Kathleen Reese
A few years ago, while camping in Virginia, I awoke one morning after a night of drizzling rain, and as I stepped out into the early morning sunlight, I was struck by the beauty and startling contrast presented by the sunlit mist and the shadows cast by the sun filtering through the surrounding forest, and managed to capture the image above, in spite of not being truly and fully awake in that moment.
Fetching and raising my camera to my eye was almost an instinctive reaction given my intense interest and long experience as a serious amateur photographer, but the moment held a much deeper significance for me personally, as I was also profoundly aware of a leap toward an expansion of the inner awakening taking place within me that was, at that very moment, accelerating.
What I saw through the viewfinder could easily have been simply a lovely moment in the woods that offered an opportunity to record the scene that caught my photographer’s eye, but there was clearly another level of awareness opening within me that made the scene seem more like a reflection of my subjective experience than the creation of an image in the forest. It could almost have been that I was still technically asleep and merely dreaming that I was there, viewing the spectacle of morning. I recall well the stillness all around me; the shifting swirls of mist floating through the streaming confluence of sunlight and shadows; the sensation of the cool and damp morning air against my skin; and the powerful synergy of the temporal elements combining with a potent emotional, psychological, and spiritual richness in that moment.
Quite often, through the years of my life, I can recall experiencing similar moments of either mist or shadows or both simultaneously, and even when one or the other prevailed as the dominant effect, it was obvious that even the presence of clouds in the ever-darkening sky at day’s end…
…or the deepening of shadows as the night approached on a humid summer evening…
…or even the diminished light of day due to the imposition of a dense batch of fog…
…the elements always combined in a way that altered perceptions and defied expectations.
When we are on the spiritual path or engaged in a deepening of our awareness through deliberate practice of any sort, the deeper meaning of our experience of life can also be illuminated by the contrasting and complementary aspects of our experience, in much the same way as suggested by the temporal presence of mist and shadows.
In the song lyrics above, the last line feels like the most telling of them all. Upon any of the many paths available to tread, there will inevitably be moments when the shadows might appear, or when the clouds might obscure our view, and when the sun is high in the sky, the shade might even provide a respite from the intense sunlight.
Night becomes day. Seasons change. Mist evaporates. Shadows wane or disappear with a sufficient cloud cover. Nothing lasts forever. The sun eventually returns. The fog eventually clears. The arrival of night can bring blessed relief from oppressive heat. The morning sun can bring a chance to begin anew. No matter what conditions might prevail at any given moment, all will fade—all will fade.
John's Consciousness 
The song begins, “Home is behind the world ahead.” To me, that means here and now. THIS is where home is. No need to search for it in the past good old days or in an optimistic future.
David,
Thanks for stopping by and for taking the time to comment. My reading of the words to the song from the movie suggests that home is left behind us when we venture out into the world ahead of us and seek out one of the many paths to tread in that journey. Our travels will likely take us through the shadows to the edge of night. We cannot know as we embark on our journey where it might lead. There is a degree of uncertainty in every choice we make as we travel through the world, and it is likely that, no matter what happens, we will encounter mist and shadows, clouds and shade–good days and bad days–uncertainty and confusion–along the way, but regardless of whatever we encounter, success or failure, trials or tribulations, all will fade.
All of our thoughts and actions and travels take place in the “here and now,” and as we age and grow in the world, the good old days and the as-yet-to-be-realized future don’t add up to much more than memories and anticipation of what is to come. Everything that is important transpires in this very moment in which we live, but I think the song suggests that the nature of life itself is impermanent, and it, too, will one day fade.
Glorious song. I have always loved LOTR which I first read aged 13 and the film adaption with its music were, to me, perfect.
Yes, very haunting indeed.
BBC produced a very sobering documentary called Earth recently by Chris Packham. I knew all the themes anyway but it was rather well spelt out. The fact that so many species have been wiped out in the 4.5 billion year life of the planet, 50m year ice ages, unimaginable conditions unsuitable for most forms of life.
I am recently re-considering the concept of letting go, oddly enough in the context of advice given by the scriptures and the various spiritual traditions.
In the sense that we as a species are so ephemeral and will highly probably pass. And I have found the best way is to try to lead my life exactly as JC and the Buddha taught.
Turning the other cheek, realizing the absurdity of human ambition and vices. Feeling the truth of dust to dust.
I notice, viscerally, my life improving as I feel at a deep intuitive level my and our impermanence and the truths taught by such figures.
I may not believe in a supernatural deity along the lines of the Christian god, but like our friend Keith Hancock, I can not help feeling something as opposed to nothing. Reality, perhaps, as he would say.
There is a kind of liberation in the idea that what we often pursue as urgent in this life, when considered in earnest, can actually be understood as “absurd human ambition,” as you phrased it, especially in light of our viewpoint in the advanced stages of life. When we are young and ambitious, impermanence isn’t even on our radar generally, and as we age, it only enters our awareness gradually in many cases. There are some who are wise beyond their years, but they are usually the exception. Once we have begun to experience loss and the inevitable moments of disappointment and occasional failures, it becomes necessary to rethink our ambitions, and to re-evaluate what matters. Each of us arrives at this conclusion in our own time, and there is a great benefit to raising our awareness sooner rather than later.
As a seasoned and time-tempered optimist, in spite of the high statistical probability of eventual extinction for our species, based on the evidence of ice ages, meteor strikes, and resulting mass extinctions from other causes over the millennia, it is my feeling that it is certainly not necessarily inevitable just yet. Regardless of the currently prevailing trends in the circumstances of climate change and apparent chaos in the world-at-large, unless we simply throw up our hands and surrender to hopelessness, it is my belief that humanity can endure and eventually overcome these adversities with the right application of measured ambition, innovation, and cooperation.
The perspective that “all will fade,” applies equally to adversity and difficult challenges as it does to our ephemeral nature, and realizing what truly matters requires us to seek out that “deeply intuitive level,” which is a vital part of our very human nature. Your feeling of “something as opposed to nothing,” suggests that you are still on a path of discovery, as am I, and therein lies cause for optimism.
Thank you so much for sharing such a thought-provoking comment! Kindest regards…John H.
👌💯