We’re in an interesting corner of the calendar, where days grow shorter and people of various traditions celebrate the triumph of light over darkness, of good over evil and of life over death.
Last night marked the beginning of the
Hindu festival of Diwali. I
learned about Diwali when I moved to the Valley They Call Silicon. Since I was
struggling with driving back the dark, I glommed onto it like limpets on a
rock. Last night I again massed candles to drive back all manner of dark
things. Not only do I like the soft light that groups of candles give off, the
very act of lighting them one at a time and nursing along some of the ones at
the end of their life slows me down. It calms me down.
Filling a room with candle light takes
time; you can’t flip a switch and move on to the next task on your to-do list.
And if you’re lighting those floating jobbers, you have to be very focused on
not disturbing the water, because then it dowses the flames and you have to
wipe them off and start over again.
It’s like the count-breaths-to-21
methodology of meditation: if you lose count because your monkey mind is
distracted, you have to begin again from one.
There are some days I never make it into
double digits.
But there’s something about knowing how
happy the moving lights will make me that enables me to persevere with candles.
I light them, sit back and watch; and for at least a few minutes the world
around me is peaceful and full of hope. Light prevails over darkness, love
conquers fear, and good triumphs over evil.
It’s something to hold onto in these dark, dark times.
©2025 Bas Bleu
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