Carrying Light

"We can't live in the light all of the time. You have to take whatever light you can hold into the dark with you."

(Libba Bray, A Great and Terrible Beauty)

"People who have come to know the joy of God do not deny the darkness, but they choose not to live in it. They claim that the light shine in the darkness can be trusted more than the darkness itself and that a little bit of light can dispel a lot of darkness."

(Henri Nouwen, The Return of the Prodigal Son)

I don't know which quote is more true. Sometimes even though light dispels a lot of darkness, part of the darkness remains, a silent presence that I can't ignore. And yet the light stays as well, tethered by hope. It's that paradox of rejoicing in our sufferings, a simultaneous bit of light and dark.

Maybe both quotes are saying the same thing: the idea is to choose light, to hold onto hope, to carry it and find it whenever dark comes our way, to remember that night never lasts, and the sunrise always comes.

May the blessing of light be on you - light without and light within.

(Irish Blessing)