We just aren't around true darkness very often.
From where I write this I can see a streetlight, overhead lights, Christmas tree lights, fire light and even my computer screen each giving off there own brand of light.
We don't know darkness as a frightening demon that it used to be. If we have seen true darkness it was likely as a tourist. I think I've seen it a handful of time. Once, I was in a cave and the park ranger asked us to turn off our flashlights. Suddenly everything disappeared. And, even though I knew I was standing next to my family, I had to reach out and touch them. Because it was frightening, even for a few moments, to be in such darkness. We instinctively know to fear it. Even though, for generations, it hasn't really existed. And we use this metaphor of darkness for the very worst humanity has to offer.
And I can think of dark places I have been. The killing fields of Cambodia. The hospital in Tanzania after a cholera outbreak. The little girl crying at the children's shelter and holding up a hand red with the imprint of a stove's burner. I know this darkness. And I suspect, before I'm done, I will know more.
And then there is light.
We make light, it seems, by accident. Virtually every technological advance came with it a light. Fire and electricity and screens and watches and medical devices. Light. We can't make darkness. But we can make light. Over and over again.
We are meant for light.
And I have seen this. The hungry boy who shared his food. The old man who came to the rest home all day every day and cared for his wife when he could barely care for himself. The single mom who worked a second job so her son could go to college. They stand like blazing torches in my memory. We are meant to be a creature that reaches out beyond our selfishness beyond the dark. We are meant to be light.
And sometime we fail. But that doesn't change our mission. It doesn't change who we, at our core, are.
So it is solstice tonight. And I love that in the darkest night we celebrate light. Because even though I live a life bathed in light, I need to remember that light is real. Goodness is real. Kindness, love, and hope are real. And it is something worth celebrating.
#lighttheworld
From where I write this I can see a streetlight, overhead lights, Christmas tree lights, fire light and even my computer screen each giving off there own brand of light.
We don't know darkness as a frightening demon that it used to be. If we have seen true darkness it was likely as a tourist. I think I've seen it a handful of time. Once, I was in a cave and the park ranger asked us to turn off our flashlights. Suddenly everything disappeared. And, even though I knew I was standing next to my family, I had to reach out and touch them. Because it was frightening, even for a few moments, to be in such darkness. We instinctively know to fear it. Even though, for generations, it hasn't really existed. And we use this metaphor of darkness for the very worst humanity has to offer.
And I can think of dark places I have been. The killing fields of Cambodia. The hospital in Tanzania after a cholera outbreak. The little girl crying at the children's shelter and holding up a hand red with the imprint of a stove's burner. I know this darkness. And I suspect, before I'm done, I will know more.
And then there is light.
We make light, it seems, by accident. Virtually every technological advance came with it a light. Fire and electricity and screens and watches and medical devices. Light. We can't make darkness. But we can make light. Over and over again.
We are meant for light.
And I have seen this. The hungry boy who shared his food. The old man who came to the rest home all day every day and cared for his wife when he could barely care for himself. The single mom who worked a second job so her son could go to college. They stand like blazing torches in my memory. We are meant to be a creature that reaches out beyond our selfishness beyond the dark. We are meant to be light.
And sometime we fail. But that doesn't change our mission. It doesn't change who we, at our core, are.
So it is solstice tonight. And I love that in the darkest night we celebrate light. Because even though I live a life bathed in light, I need to remember that light is real. Goodness is real. Kindness, love, and hope are real. And it is something worth celebrating.
#lighttheworld
Even though this is almost an entire year late, I’d like to comment on this beautiful description of light, and darkness, and how we as human beings experience both on so many levels throughout our lives. I have no doubt there are “dark” forces at play in the grand scheme of things. But as this author poignantly states, it is up to us to decide which of the two conditions ultimately prevail. Personally I’ve learned through direct experience that light disperses darkness, not the other way around. In other words if light recedes, darkness fill its space. And darkness does not just voluntarily recede. It’s pushed away when the illuminating grace of love is shined on it, in it, and through it. Scientifically light is matter that is more forceful and stronger than darkness- it’s also a lot happier and, well, lighter:) So here’s to the Traveling Widow and her ode to light. And here’s to light, and it’s illuminating grace that saves us from lives of darkness. This December I’ll be watching my calendar for The Solstice and will be thinking of light things; like kindness, compassion and charity.
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