I went gold panning with someone I consider an Elder. His name is Jerry, and he’s been on these unique adventures for 50 years (such as traveling the world by boat and giving up his legal career to work as a FedEx driver to find simplicity). I was excited that he invited me out to gold pan by hand. 

We went into the Vermont forest, searching for dark, magnetic sand near a stream of water. He sticks a metal rod in the dirt, twists it to go deeper, and pulls it out. Sure enough, there’s this dark sand stuck to the rod. That’s a sign of gold. So we start digging. 

We dig up rocks, dirt, and sand and shovel them into our hand pans. Then, we dip the pan into the water, letting everything drift off into the stream until all that remains is the dark sand. We then pull the pan out of the stream, leaving just enough water to comb through the dark sand. Little by little, with deep patience and reverence, we use the water to peel away the dark sand. What remained was this golden dust that shined in the sun light. 

What Jerry showed me is to find gold, you must search the darkness.

You begin by letting all the distractions–the rocks and dirt–drift away until you find the dark sand. 

Once you find the darkness, you gently, patiently comb through it, being careful not to tire yourself out and lose sight of what you’re looking for. 

Gold is the heaviest metal in dark sand, so if you go deep enough, you'll find it. 

With some help from the Sun Light, you’ll see Gold shining underneath. 

I believe life works the same way. 

The Gold of our life is deep in the darkness. 

But we must remove the distractions to find the darkness.

Once there, we must have the patience, and the gentleness to work with the darkness.

When we’ve befriended the darkness, with the help of a little Light, we find the Gold underneath.