Shine Some Light

It is a hot July early morning (3:45 a.m.) It is pitch-black outside and the electricity went out waking me from my slumber. As I wrote “pitch-black,” I wondered where that phrase originated. In case you are interested, it is said to derive as a variant of “as black as pitch” which is a sticky, black substance that is obtained as residue from the distillation of wood tar. The phrase is said to be first recorded in several 14th century English texts.

I always find it peculiar that when the sound of the humming fan or air conditioner become silent, it wakes me from a deep sleep. I suppose I am used to the sounds around me and when they become silent it is almost like the sound of an alarm clock waking me up-but it is the lack of sound that disrupts me. Why is that?

I grabbed a flashlight to check things out and as the light from the flashlight illuminated my path I had some other thoughts. First of all, there is no storm, no rain and no wind right now and I am wondering what happened to cause the outage. Second of all, the light serves its purpose of allowing me to walk within its glow to avoid stumbling over things. As I walk in its path I think of everything else beyond its light that is there but I can’t see it. So is life. I am limited to see everything while the power is out and I have only the flashlight to light my steps. I am using this as an analogy to compare this narrow light pathway to narrow mindedness. In a world where there is so much to see, so much to learn, so many people, so many different cultures….but many times we can only “see” and perhaps accept the way we do things. There is a whole world, a massive universe that God created not to be judged but to live and to love. Be kind. We are all unique individuals however if we shine some light-we will find that we are more alike than we are different.

Shine your light. Your inner light. (and during a power outage, your flashlight :))