Don't turn out the lights just yet...

Remember when you were younger, and you used to flip the light switch and dash for the bed, taking great care not to get your legs too close to the dark abyss under your bed as you leapt Indiana Jones style onto your bed, yet again narrowly escaping the monsters of the dark? And remember how you cowered under your trusty, cotton soft, super-titanium blanket, wrapping yourself in that shroud of impenetrable armor, knowing that the evil that lurked just outside stamped it's silent foot in rage at being foiled yet again?
All "normal" people have had that very rational fear of the dark. The reality is, most people don't realize exactly how close they still are to that fear. As you get older, your eyes develop, and your imagination wanes, as science and logic take hold of your adolescent mind and direct your focus to much more real, and inherent dangers, like embarrassment, or rejection, or failure.
We all end up with one major fear that shapes our lives in a major way, whether that fear be heights, (picking that office on the 3rd floor instead of the 33rd) sharks, (never telling your husband about that free cruise you won) failure, (alienating everyone around you and considering them a burden instead of a blessing) or the most common one, being alone.
We've all heard the phrase said, in some way or another "He/She is the light of my life." That metaphor stems from that common fear of the dark. When we're older, and looking for that perfect One (or two, or thirteen) that we want to spend the rest of our lives with, those nights alone can seem like the darkest times of all. When you have someone with you, in person or in spirit (not ghost, just in thought, mostly), the dark doesn't seem like such a scary place. It's a big, scary, malevolent-looking world out there when you try to go it alone. But you don' have to be. There is always someone who will be willing to hold your hand as you hit that switch, and make that leap of faith over that dark abyss into that bouncy haven. Just ask. They might be waiting for you.