Seeing the Divine in Black and White
By Kateb Nuri-Alim Shunnar
I used to dream in color. Bright, vivid scenes would unfold as I slept full of life, energy, and all the shades in between. But lately, that’s changed. Now, my dreams come only in black and white. It’s a strange shift, almost like watching an old film where everything feels distant yet familiar. At first, I wondered if something was wrong, if maybe I had lost something along the way. But now, I think it’s the opposite.
You see, when everything’s in color, it’s easy to get distracted. The vibrancy pulls your attention in all directions. But when it’s just black and white, you start to notice things differently. The contrasts are sharper, the details more pronounced. There’s no hiding behind the flashiness of color. It’s all right there, plain and simple. And maybe, just maybe, that’s what I needed.
I think this shift in my dreaming is like a message a reminder from the Creator to slow down, to strip away the excess and focus on what really matters. Life is full of noise, isn’t it? We’re constantly bombarded with things pulling us in a hundred directions, and it’s easy to get caught up in it all. But when things quiet down, when the color fades, you’re left with the essentials. You’re left with truth.
In a way, dreaming in black and white feels like being pulled back to basics, back to the core of my spiritual journey. It’s like the Creator is telling me, "Look, you don’t need all the extra. What’s real is right here, in front of you." It reminds me of how often we chase after the bright, exciting things in life, thinking they’re what will make us feel alive. But maybe life’s richness isn’t in the loud moments, but in the quiet, still ones.
When I think about it, I realize that this black-and-white dreaming reflects how I’m starting to see the world, too. There’s a simplicity in it that feels right. It’s not about losing the color, but about finding clarity in the contrast. In black and white, the lines are sharper, the shadows are deeper, and the light shines brighter. There’s no in-between, no gray areas to confuse things. It’s just raw, pure, and honest.
And that’s where the beauty lies, doesn’t it? In the simplicity. In seeing things as they are, without all the distractions. Sometimes, life gets so cluttered with what we think we need, that we forget to focus on what’s really important. In these dreams, I’m learning to do just that. To see life for what it is, to embrace both the light and the dark, knowing that both are necessary.
I’ve come to appreciate this new way of dreaming. It’s not as flashy or exciting as it used to be, but there’s a depth here that I didn’t notice before. And maybe that’s the point. The Creator is showing me that even in the absence of color, there’s a richness, a beauty in the simplicity that I’ve been overlooking.
So now, when I close my eyes at night and step into that black-and-white world, I don’t feel like I’m missing out on anything. If anything, I’m seeing more clearly than I ever have. I’m seeing the divine in the contrasts, the quiet spaces, the simplicity. And for that, I’m grateful.
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