The Balance Between Darkness And Light

The last few weeks have been mostly positive – I’ve a number of exciting plates to spin currently, spanning both my vanilla and kinky worlds. But sometimes we bump into bad behaviours, things we’d rather not experience ourselves, let alone witness happening to those we love. I try to face challenges with an open heart but, for example, when your child faces a cruel and unnecessary injustice it is hard to balance the darkness with the light. Yes, I’ve done everything I can to right it, and he is safe which is the main thing.

But it doesn’t stop the acid-tongued inner-chunterer piping up against the perpetrators.

I sat, silently seething – or more likely quietly muttering – when I received a timely reminder in my emails. Some time ago I subscribed to a “Quote A Day” site and have never got round to unsubscribing. Mostly that is laziness, which is utterly ridiculous! But sometimes I receive some words that are just right, such as these.

Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.”

Martin Luther King, Jr

The email had this abridged version of his original words, but I can’t help but think that any more would have been too much for my turmoil.

Funny how twenty words can shift my focus so completely.

With that little shift in perspective I decided to go in search of a torch to illuminate a path out of the grumpy shadows. This is how I found myself looking through rope sessions with 1001011. I found the image above, taken over a year ago as I recovered from Covid. “Go gentle” I’d asked, before he swung me upside down, dangled me from a single string. (Please don’t try this at home, I can assure you it was more involved than that!) That was my first inversion. And the photo at the top of this post? This one was taken shortly after that. A smooth transition sliding me over to the side, twisting me in a display of meanness.

Remembering good times, especially if there has been a challenge along the way, is a sure fire way for me to step back into my sunshine. Knowing I have amazing friends who enjoy making similar memories brings me joy. Enables me to push on as best I can. But! I’ve waxed lyrical about my friends often on the blog. And today’s post is about parenting, not kink!

I am always mindful of the balance between darkness and light.

You can’t have one without the other, and life is so much more fulfilling (for me) now that I am able to fully accept and explore this. The deeper my masochism the more I enjoy the lighter touch as well. If you’re not into that, perhaps you will know what I mean when I serve spicy food with a light, creamy dip. But then there are the injustices we face on a day-to-day basis. When these are inflicted on my young ‘uns this feels particularly dark. And it would be easy to turn to shady tactics to exact revenge. But that’s not me, and, as MLK showed us, that would only make things worse.

So I set the example I want to see.

Keeping my side of the street clean, I have fought his corner with him. Together we’ve pushed for a resolution, understanding the other persons’ circumstances may not be great but they still need to be held accountable. And then? Well, then we’ve come back to the sunshine and been silly together. Importantly, we’ve enjoyed flipping the bird at the darkness that has passed by jumping into the light!

Click the lips to see what everyone else is up to this week for Sinful Sunday.

I’ve just realised that I’ve written a piece about being In The Shade, prompt number 32 of 43 for 23. This is Mrs Fever’s personal writing ideas list which she has kindly permitted me to plagiarise for my own gains.