Pressed by Darkness, Lit by Hope

Too Much World

“The bright side of the planet moves toward darkness
And the cities are falling asleep, each in its hour,
And for me, now as then, it is too much.
There is too much world.”
— Czesław Miłosz, The Separate Notebooks

That was the feeling I tried to capture in this charcoal drawing.
A man seated on the ground—one knee up, head bowed, one hand to his forehead as if bracing himself. His whole posture says it: the world is too much right now.

And haven’t we all been there?
Overwhelmed.
Cracked.
Folded in on ourselves, trying to hold it all together with bare hands.

I remember a moment from a class I once took.
The professor handed us paper bags and told us to poke holes in them, tear them, crumple them, kick them around. Then we placed them over flashlights.

And light poured out—
Not from the untouched parts.
But from the broken spots.
The rips. The gashes. The kicked-in places.

That light, we were told, was Christ in us.
Not in spite of the damage.
Because of it.

And it made me wonder:
What happens when we’re squeezed by life—by suffering, disappointment, or grief?

If we’re toothpaste, what comes out?
If we’re an orange, what’s inside?

If Christ is in us… then when we’re pressed, Christ comes out.
Not always right away.
Not always clean or clear.
But He’s there.
In the tears.
Through the cracks.
With the light.

“When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.”
– Viktor E. Frankl

That’s the hard part, right?
We don’t always get to change the world around us.
But we can choose—daily—to carry light within us.

This is not our home.
We are not defined by how strong we look, but by what shines through when we’re broken.

Hope is a superpower.
It’s not blind optimism.
It’s not pretending things aren’t hard.
Hope is choosing to believe in the Light, even when all you see is shadow.

So yeah… the world can be too much.
But maybe, just maybe, we are more.

More than we feel.
More than we fear.
More than what presses in on us.

And when we shine, even a little?
The darkness doesn’t stand a chance.

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