´óÏó´«Ã½

A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Rev Virginia Luckett

Migraines - Comfort in darkness

Good morning and welcome.

My friend Femke, who I often stay with when I'm working away from home, suffers from migraine headaches. Usually she finds a way of coping bravely with the pain as she gets on with her day, but sometimes the light and the pain are unbearable. It is then, she finds comfort in darkness.

Whether it’s night or day, she closes her blackout curtains, puts on her thick eye mask and retreats into darkness. In focusing on the darkness, just behind her eyelids, somehow, the worst of the pain melts, as she reconnects with her deeper self and gains some relief and comfort.

Even though I'm not a migraine sufferer myself, as I have gotten older I can understand the need to retreat into darkness, the darkness of ourselves to find out what is hidden there.

Being an extrovert and external processor this has been a hard won lesson for me, as so much of my thought life only develops through talking and genuinely, I don’t know what I am thinking unless I've said it out loud.

To have learnt how to focus on my own version of ‘the darkness just behind my eyelids’ through developing the discipline of silent prayer has been an extraordinary journey of personal discovery. As it has enabled me to reconnect with the deep and sometimes painful riches hidden in the darkness of my soul.

Through this practice I have learnt so much about myself, the world and my God.

So today I pray for all of us, who are searching for answers in the darkest places of our lives that we will find what we need.

Amen

Show less