"There are two ways of spreading light - to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it." ~~~Edith Wharton

Cathching The Light
Our Prayer Newsletter
Sabra Sabianco

Growing up, my siblings and I spent summer nights chasing lightning bugs. We caught the sparks of light in cupped hands and dropped them in a jar so we could gaze at them up close. Last night, after my sons fell asleep, I sat on my back porch and looked out at the lightning bugs twinkling like diamonds. I thought of a memory I have of a summer night many years ago when my grandma said,
"We can learn a lot from lightning bugs."
Grandma leaned in close to me, and I smelled her lemon verbena perfume as she put her arm around my shoulder.
"Each of us, everyone in this world, has a beautiful light, just like those lightning bugs. And the reason we're here is to shine. To find our spark, and to light the world with our gifts."
I must have been four or five, but I knew even with a child's sense of reason that her words were important. I thought about what she was saying. Grandma was one of those people I'd heard described as lighting up a room. Sure, I thought - you have a light, you shine, but everyone?
"Everyone?" I asked. "Even me?"
"Everyone," Grandma said, "You, me, the man on the moon."
I remember looking out the window that night as we drove home and getting lost in thought in the darkness wondering what my light was and what it would be in years to come. I looked at my family and silently named everything special about them, from my sister's one-handed cartwheels to Mom's way of kissing away even the deepest hurts.
Not long after, I stopped chasing lightning bugs. I was content to rock in my cushioned chair watching them fly freely against the darkness, spreading their light.