Breath of Love

Daily Delight — November 2014

Photo by Tim Umphreys on Unsplash

I love and have always loved candle lighting ceremonies.

A single match, the birth of flame.
One spark illuminates the dark momentarily before it dies.

Or

Is caught by a solitary person, two hands shepherding a single flame.

But

Then the flame is shared.
Hands coming together, first only two, but then four.
One flame becomes two, brightening, pushing back the dark.

The brightness grows exponentially, one candle lights another until the room is bursting with light, all the dark corners pushed back, a swell of community, a vessel of hope, a force of love.

When the last candle was lit at our wedding, all our loved ones focused on us. I leaned against my wife, clutching her hand, overpowered. All these people looking at me with so much love in their hearts was too much to bear.

Whatever darkness is lodged in me, whispering that I am not enough, am not worthy, that darkness died a little in the face of all that light.

Mesmerized by the soft flickering and the intensity of our oneness, our officiant’s voice broke the spell, “Hold in your heart a wish for the happy…