For the past 3 years now, I’ve been holding on to a book which I borrowed from my brother. It’s Dark Nights of the Soul by Thomas Moore. The author is a former Catholic monk turned psychotherapist. I’ve read the book several times, but I still return to some pages now and then, especially when I am in search of connections between creativity, spirituality and emotional struggles.One part I love re-reading when I tend to take myself too seriously is “Resurrecting the Child.” Moore asserts that “many people live in emotional darkness because they have never fully enjoyed a child spirit in their overly serious lives. The child wanders homeless in the lives of many adults….” And yet, this “child” is a clear source of energy and creativity. Moore’s formula for finding our way to childhood is by doing something quite simple and meaningful for us personally, for instance, making an old family recipe for soup. Others, he says, resurrect the child in allowing themselves to be irresponsible in certain areas of their lives, such as “stealing” time for themselves, eating “forbidden” foods and reading for the fun of it.
I guess that one way of putting into action today’s Gospel of love could also be this: helping each other “resurrect” the child in a way that it is fully compatible with a mature, adult life, like feasting, celebrating, playing. Indeed, part of Moore’s protest against our adult, sophisticated modern society is that “instead of playing actively and seriously, we let other people entertain us, and instead of enjoying a strong feeling of community, we are highly dependent on our electronic connections.”
