I was hiking the other evening in the Superstition Mountains during sunset, and as I stood up from meditation, I noticed my shadow being cast on a hill behind me. I stood there looking at it, appreciating how my silhouette was one with the silhouette of the rock outcropping that I was standing on. I was also appreciating that on a hill, some distance from where I stood, my shadow was being cast.

I realized that though I had been through there many times at that time of day, I had never taken notice of my shadow being cast there. It wasn’t that I had never cast that shadow before, I had always cast that shadow, I just hadn’t stopped to recognize it. It was then that I realized that everybody casts a shadow, whether we realize it, choose to recognize it, or not.

We all cast physical shadows, we’ve seen them, we may have even chased them as a child. I know my youngest son pretend fought and danced, and watched his shadow with appreciation the entire time. But we don’t only cast physical shadows. We cast shadows of all types.

Our actions and our words cast shadows that are recognizable by us, if we take the time to look for them. They’re recognizable by others as well. We can see echoes of what we do and say as they are cast on the environment and the people around us. People may see us, and they may see our shadow. Often times, people may see our shadow first, only then looking for the source of the shape being cast. People may be affected by our shadows, knowing the source of them. Our shadows can have both negative and positive connotations.

Whether we recognize it or not, we do cast a shadow. The question is, where do you cast your shadow, and what type of shadow do you want to cast?