Image Description: A single, yellow candle burns in the darkness. Public domain image.
A single candle burned with light in the middle of my living room. We had placed it there as a reminder that our conversation with one another was sacred.
People from the Michigan Nones and Dones community sat on my couch and in the rocking chairs. We faced one another. It was the evening after the 2016 election, and people needed some space to process it, along with an entire year that revealed challenging rhetoric and marginalization.
Together, we wept.
It was a time of grief. The feelings were painful, and we needed the comfort of one another.
Quakers have a beautiful phrase to express prayer and connection. When people are going through a challenging time, they say, “Holding you in the light.”
There are times when that very light and holding cultivate the gift of release. Light can hold grief. Community can hold sorrow. We can hold one another in pain, release, growth, and possibility.
Smuggling Grace 