Investigating the Shadow

“The shadow develops in each of us as children as we inevitably identify with socially acceptable traits…and banish their opposites into the unconscious shadow. These unacceptable feelings, images, and desires lie dormant in the shadow but may erupt abruptly in hurtful or self-destructive behavior, addiction, and projections of all kinds.”—In The Inner Work of Age: Shifting from Role to Soul, by Connie Zweig (2021).

We’re reading this book, hoping to learn something we don’t already know. So far, it’s either bewildering to us (like that passage above) or obvious. So then we go for a walk or a ride and see something merely beautiful), putting the books aside and breathing sea air.