Threads of Light

"Let me be recalled to the strength and beauty deep in my soul"

My new book, The Things That Saved Me, was released this past week. I planned to send out a newsletter yesterday but when I woke up to the news that the U.S. had attacked Iran, all the air went out of my celebratory bubble.

Rather than thinking about my book, I was overwhelmed with the heaviness of the day, and the dark, violent world we live in. And once again, that feeling of helplessness to make a difference was threatening to swallow me.

But then this morning, I was reminded of the epigraph in the beginning of my book, a quote from J Philip Newell’s prayer book Celtic Benediction: “In glimpsing these threads of light amidst the weakness and distortions of my life, let me be recalled to the strength and beauty deep in my soul.”

Cookies (made by Rainbow Cookie Co) celebrating my book launch last Tuesday

I chose those words as my epigraph because they seemed to capture the essence of my book. That in the midst of incredibly hard things, in what feels like impenetrable darkness, there are threads of light that have the capacity to remind us of who we are. To remind us of the strength and beauty and wisdom and goodness deep within us. To remind us that this kind of light knows how to penetrate the darkness just by showing up.

If I could paraphrase Newell’s quote to speak to our collective selves, I would encourage us—in the midst of all the dark things going on around us, in our communities, our country, our world—to glimpse the threads of light that live within us, that live within our stories, to be recalled to the strength, goodness, beauty, and wisdom within and among us, and to let our collective light pierce the darkness.

Here are a few threads of light from The Things That Saved Me, gifts from my younger selves that help me remember how to bear my light, especially when it is dark:

Remember your inherent worth.

Believe you can tackle hard things.

Embrace what empowers you, what brings out the best in you.

Find your voice and trust yourself to use it.

Claim the courage to seek the truth.

May we all breathe light into each other’s stories. Especially now.

May it be so.

Here’s to the journey,

Melynne