October 14, 2026

What The Dark Teaches

I have learned things in the dark that I could never have learned in the light, things that have saved my life over and over again, so that there is really only one logical conclusion. I need darkness as much as I need light.

Barbara Brown Taylor spent years as an Episcopal priest and professor before writing Learning to Walk in the Dark. The book grew out of her own lifelong fear of literal darkness—of caves, of night walks, of power outages—and her midlife decision to seek out that fear instead of running from it. She found that the dark held lessons the light never offered, lessons about trust and resilience that only surface when the lights go out. Her honesty names a kind of courage most of us avoid: walking toward what frightens us instead of around it.