Darkness and Light

Image found here

It sounded like the cracking of leaves - the paper lanterns catching the wind, jealously protecting the flames billowing in their bellies. A thousand candles in the sky, punctuating the night into a universe of our own making.

Children giggled and laughed, a toddler wide-eyed in wonder yelled, "Whoa (!!!)," and the adults within earshot smiled and tried to grasp the awe of heat and air, molecules shifting into new configurations allowing the lanterns to lift - molecules of oxygen and nitrogen pushing the lanterns up further and higher - drafts blowing them toward the darkness, dispersing them to the horizons.

For a moment a hush fell over the crowd - a contagion of awe and mystery as each person kept his or her light in his or her vision until it became indistinguishable from all the others.

Mary considered her light, the hours she spent finding the paper, the carefully constructed wire holding her flame. In her mind, the flame held the hopes for her future, the wishes of her ancestors, the sparks of imagination which would find rest in the heavens and illuminate the path she needed to take now. 

Henry, who stood beside her, knew nothing about why he was here. He had walked up to the park to leave the raucous mess which amounted to his life and found them here - the thousands of people with their lanterns and their lights offering what they had to the night. The cumulative impact of all those people, all those lights stilled his mind to a single question, "How can someone keep offering his light to the darkness?"

- Writing group, November 17, 2024