LIGHT

Erasmus - 15th Century Dutch Christian
humanist and scholar

Three more days . . . and we're going to "gain an hour" by setting our clocks back before we go to bed. Or, if we're lucky enough to have current technology ticking away our minutes and hours, our atomic clocks, cell phones, and computers will do the changing for us.

That's all I'm going to say about going back to Standard Time.

And the only reason I bring it up at all is that for a little while, maybe a couple of weeks, we'll have sunrise in my neck of the woods around 7:00 AM.

Which  means, in case you're not already asleep from this convoluted intro, that we will have a little more light in the morning, and not so much at night.

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Light, as a topic of interest, has intrigued me for a long time.

Who among us can say we've never--never--felt we were stumbling around in the dark?

It doesn't have to be literal darkness--power goes off, or light bulb burns out, or we're out camping and the only light is the campfire, so don't go wandering off to the latrine unless you have a flashlight.

Darkness can be metaphorical--we simply can't see/understand/perceive a way out of our dilemma. We often need someone to guide us back to the light.

Edith Wharton - American Author - 1862-1937

At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us. 

     Albert Schweitzer

The flip side of that metaphor is that each of us becomes the guide.

A smile is the light in your window that tells others that there is a caring, sharing person inside. 

     Denis Waitley

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I've never been a good traveler--going into the unknown was, and is, 'way beyond my comfort zone. (Pretty much everything is outside my comfort zone, but that's a story for another day.)

Anyway, when I found the above quotation from Christopher Columbus, who, in the 15th Century made numerous explorations by sea far from his homeland of Italy, I recognized in those eleven words a profound statement: We followed the sun, we left our home. But the important part is this: They followed the light of the sun. They didn't sail off into darkness. They may not have known exactly where they were going, but they followed the light.

I find that thought comforting.

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Francis Bacon - English - 1561-1626

At first this would seem to be a Duh statement--but when Francis Bacon wrote it in his century, it held great truth: We recognize light only when we also know the darkness is there. It's the contrast that determines the brightness of the light.

And you don't have to be a creationist to understand that God brought light into being and separated it from the darkness--day and night.


Ursula K. LeGuin, an American author, expressed it this way:

American novelist - 1929-2018

Artists, especially painters, know the value of light and shadow. In fact, many painters make small "value studies" to indicate where color changes from light to dark.






May your days be filled with light.