A Light Story for the New Year

A Light Story for the New year begins when you resonate with a person or idea, and feel a balm in your soul, acknowledging your Light.

Beginning this New Year – 2023 – we feel this Light… like last week’s blog musing on the words of “O Holy Night”:

… a thrill of Hope… the weary world rejoices,

for yonder breaks a New and Glorious Morn!

The New Year brings this expectancy of New Light, for each of us. One of my recent LIGHT blogs was about the artists who create through their Light. Today you will meet one of those artists.

A Light Story

Knowing my Light, I followed its glitter and beams in and out, and up and down many an episode. I was always a searcher. When I found a book, or a speaker, a workshop, or a conference that resonated with me, I felt myself grow… and glow. And I remembered the Light inside me. One such experience was in the 1990s when I attended my first Omega Institute in Boston.

Stage:

The stage lights were down, and the houselights slowly dimmed until we were all sitting in the dark. In the dusky shadows, a light began to walk the stage. It was actually two beaming Lights: a flickering candle – and the human being holding it – who was none other than the magical, mystical, Light-filled Maya Angelou.

She held out the candle to the audience and her face glowed in its soft flame. Then she stood in silence for a moment. When she spoke, there was a graveling tune in her ineffably powerful voice.

Singing:

“There is a balm in Gilead. There is a b-a-l-m in Gilead… a balm in Gilead…

to make the wounded whole. Such is balm in Gilead…to heal the sinner’s soul.”

Maya set the candle on the podium and spoke to us:

“Yea-esss… there is a balm in Gilead. A glowing oil. Glowing, flowing Light.

Jeremiah spoke of this balm…

Not jeremiah, the bullfrog – she joked.

In the Old Testament: there is a light-filled, spiritual medicine … able to heal all things … all peoples – yes, all peoples … everywhere. It is a balm.

Glowing Balm

A balm is: a comfort – a relief – ease – succor – cheer – solace… mmmm….

And where does this balm come from? God – Source – Grace – Holy Spirit – Universe – Light.

And how does it come forth? Through YOU. It is in you.

Whenever I am feeling a little lost – a little alone – a little wondering about the world – and all of us in it together – I think of this B-A-L-M – mmmmm…the word – B-A-L-M… how it glows – soothes – calms – quiets. Lighting the way… soothing … the mind… body… heart… … soul.

Oh, let yourself glow! Let nothing dim the Light that shines within.”

Maya Angelou’s LIGHT Story

Maya glowed with her endless Light in her endless accomplishments. She was an international traveler, performer, and scholar. She read and studied voraciously, mastering French, Spanish, Italian, Arabic, and the West African language, Fanti. A renowned author (“I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings”) and a poet, she was invited to recite her poem, “On the Pulse of Morning“, at President Clinton’s inaugural ceremony in January 1993.

LIGHT Story Connections

A few years after I attended the conference with Maya Angelou, our daughter was studying at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. At the time, Maya Angelou was the Reynolds Professor of American Studies there, and Maya’s poem, “On the Pulse of Morning” was set to music by Wake Forest’s Resident Composer, Don Locklair. It was a Tone-Poem for Narrator (Maya Angelou), Chorus and Orchestra, and was titled: “Since Dawn”.

Our daughter sang with the Choir, feeling that same balm… in the movement of the music and the passion of Maya’s words using her powerfully indescribable voice.

After the glowing performance, she got to meet Maya Angelou, and remembers being so impressed: Maya was irresistibly dynamic. She also noted that Maya was quite nervous, and realized that this engaging, larger-than-life person was beautifully human… still glowing with her extraordinary Inner LIGHT.

Light Story People

There are people who enter our lives and brighten our moments with their Light, shining from within. It is undeniable. Because it is real. A true balm it is. A soothing, a calming, a quieting. Like a sanctuary. We feel it shining, safe, loving.

You may be one of these people. You can be.

Offering your glittering Light. Especially in this New Year. Offering a balm, that kindly, generously, pours out your Light for others.

Such is the Light that awaits us all. It is what Light does.

LIGHT ON!