Let the light shine through long hours of darkness in Caithness
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Northern Drift by Monique Sliedrecht
The other day the lights went out. I mean, literally. The wind had been blowing fiercely all night. When I woke in the morning and tried to switch on the lamp, it didn’t do anything.
I got up and checked another socket… Nothing. Considering the wild weather outside, I knew then that we might be without power for a little while and shuffled to the kitchen to find the candles and matches.
This is not difficult where I live, as there is always a surplus of candles in my home. Thankfully I also have an open fireplace in case it starts to get cold, which it inevitably did.
In the half light of morning I noticed how the flickering flames of the candles filled the room with a warm radiance. I nestled in under a wool blanket with a book, succumbing to the possibility of being without power for some time.
Light is an amazing thing. Even a small spark can have impact in a dark room. A pinprick in the shadows forces our eye to that tiny spot of brilliance.
When days are increasingly shorter in the far north; when the darkness extends into late morning and the sun begins setting mid afternoon, it can be beneficial to create warmly lit corners and spaces. The Danish are especially good at this, and have a term – hygge – in which lighting plays an important role in any room.
But what does it mean to be lights in our world?
In a time when it seems there is so much darkness all around it’s easy to feel powerless in the grand scheme of things. You only have to switch on the news to hear of dreadful bombings and shootings, of people living in dire circumstances, or the general decline of our mental health to feel a sense of helplessness. The world seems to be getting darker.
Bruce Cockburn, a Canadian musician and songwriter, wrote in his song Lovers in a Dangerous Time: "Don't the hours grow shorter as the days go by? / Nothing worth having comes without some kind of fight / Got to kick at the darkness 'til it bleeds daylight."
Our actions can be as small as a tiny spark. That’s something! And imagine the impact of hundreds, of millions, of small lights!
We can be light bearers in the context of our own lives, by sitting quietly and listening to someone who is grieving, or saying a kind word to an anxious woman behind the counter, or taking care of a neighbour’s child so they can have a break.
Eleanor Roosevelt once said: "It is better to light a candle than curse the darkness." Even in the face of hopelessness and discontent, it is more effective to do a little good than to complain about the world. Although we are flawed and imperfect creatures, we all have some essential grace in us to draw out and touch others, to bless humanity.
My mind goes to another Canadian singer and lyricist, Leonard Cohen, who wrote in his song, Anthem: "Ring the bell which still can ring / Forget your perfect offering / There is a crack, a crack in everything / That’s how the light gets in."
In this special season leading up to Christmas, it seems fitting to open ourselves up, to foster the flame and allow it to grow. One way is to always see the best in our fellow human beings.
Through looking for the light in others and being a light to others, we can enable, encourage and embolden one another as we move towards a new year, handing out our own special gifts of peace and goodwill.
“The sea rises, the light fails, lovers cling to each other, and children cling to us. The moment we cease to hold each other, the moment we break faith with one another, the sea engulfs us and the light goes out.” James Baldwin.
May our light shine.
- Monique Sliedrecht is an artist and blogger based at Freswick. If you want to follow her writing or sketches, go to her blog at www.moniquesliedrecht.com
