Do you ever feel frightened, in doubt and alone? Why not join in with this simple and beautiful practice – the LightChain – to connect with hope and humanity.
We all can do our bit, quietly, no fuss or sign-up badge required. Will you join in?
1. What is involved?
Light stands for life and hope. It can also be a powerful symbol for connection.
Joining the LightChain involves making a personal, silent and shared commitment to keep a light on for yourself and others. The knowledge of our own and others’ light can provide a sense of connection in moments of isolation, fear and doubt.
Join me and others in having a light on somewhere in your home, whether small or big, discreet or bold.
Please make sure it is not a fire hazard, think of children and pets. A battery powered tea light works well.
Feel free to share the idea using hashtag #LightChain via your friends and networks.
Join the #LightChain. A simple and beautiful practice to help you connect with hope.@KarinSieger (Click to Tweet!)
2. How did the LightChain start?
It started out of an experience of crisis and isolation, when my website was no longer available online. I felt shocked, frightened and cut off. I contacted the people hosting my site, and they were on the case. Websites go down. It has happened before and it will happen again. But something else was going on.
The feeling was saying: My website is my voice. Without it, I will not be heard.
At that moment, being in the world felt so fragile and unpredictable and powerless. The website and my writing started to feel pointless. Who was I kidding? Me!
Fear and self-doubt make a terrific and effective team.
This might sound a bit pathetic and childish to you. Well, it does to me, a bit, now, but not then. Because then it was a real feeling of distress. What to do?
If life has taught me one thing, it is that feelings are often fear-based and not reality-based.
Feeling cut off does not necessarily mean we ARE cut off.
And then I had a realization.
I remembered something that I had forgotten about in the stressful events of the morning. The day had started with a surprise, a gift from a stranger in form of a tweet.
The night before I had tweeted a suggestion to have a light (candle or battery powered etc) burning somewhere in our home.
The light is constant as opposed to the changing world.
It stands for safety and predictability.
Light helps us feel grounded and connected to ourselves and our home.
After I had sent out the tweet, someone (and they have given me permission to share the following with you) quoted the tweet. I then responded:
“Got light on, in its usual place right now, and throughout the night.“
In the morning I saw the following response:
“Waking up in the middle of the night … to know your light was burning (even at night) was comforting thought.”
I felt humbled. I felt touched.
We had created a LightChain.
I was ready to connect with then gift and the reality, that I am connected and not isolated. I do not need my website for that.
3. Will you join the LightChain?
I have a light on at home.
And I know, somewhere other lights are on, too, which keep us connected in moments when we feel cut off and with little hope.
And finally
It would be great to share the word especially now ahead of the next Worldwide Candle Lighting Day which is on 10th December 2017. “At 7 p.m. local time, people light candles for one hour to remember their loved ones. It is a moving occasion that bypasses geographical and cultural divides. As everyone lights their candles at seven pm local time, far-flung parts of the world get illuminated in turn, so that eventually the light has moved all around the globe … No matter whether you’ll be lighting a candle at home or joining a gathering Worldwide Candle Lighting Day it is a way to show love and community.”
I will be there. Will you?
Karin Sieger is a UK-based psychotherapist and writer specialising in personal transitions, endings, making peace and the emotional impact of cancer, for which Karin has been treated herself. She does her writing on her orange houseboat in London. Karin posts regularly on her website KarinSieger.com. You can sign up for her Newsletter, follow her on Twitter and Facebook or connect via LinkedIn.
Featured image courtesy of Myriams-Fotos.
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