All About Lights

Light comes to us in so many different forms:

1. Natural light emitted through sun, moon, and stars

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2. Man-made light in an almost endless variety of lamps and light fixtures

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3. Fire in all its forms (campfire, woodstove fire, candle light, lightning, lava, forest fire, fireflies). I only have two images to represent this category:

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4. Light is refracted, reflected and dispersed in a myriad ways to delight and surprise us:

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5. Points of light: these are the way showers, mentors, teachers, helpers, angels that guide us along our life’s path. I specifically remember Frau Liebich, my fourth grade teacher, who talked my blue-collar parents into sending me to a university-track school; Herr Schmitz, my highschool German and Religion teacher, who taught me to look more deeply and to question everything; friends who were there for me when I thought I had no one; and people who reached out to me through the centuries and book pages to inspire me.
My greatest inspiration and light of my life has been my daughter Anise, a beautiful and talented young woman:

Anise

(Photocredit: Blanca Bonsangue)

6. The inner light we radiate into the world, through our eyes, hearts and hands – how we show up in the world, how we influence people through the way we behave, speak or don’t speak, look or don’t look, and touch or don’t touch. Do we allow our light to shine as brightly as it can or do we hold back? We are afraid of the darkness, of what lurks in the shadows. And, yet, so many of us are equally afraid of switching on the light and stepping fully into it. So we loiter in the doorway, one foot in the dark interior, the other in the bright sunlight, hesitating, doubting ourselves, promising that we’ll make a decision tomorrow….
How and when will we let our light shine, unabashedly, completely, no-holds barred like the blazing sun or the brazen full moon?