A Little Light in the World - theHumm January 2020

By Angie Arendt

If you had dropped by our place for a cup of coffee or a bite to eat sometime this past month, chances are you would have found yourself in a “do you remember…” kind of conversation. Maybe it’s because the shorter days this time of year lend themselves to introspection. Maybe it’s our tendency to get contemplative (and sometimes a bit nostalgic) during the holidays; considering the what, why, where, when and how of things like hope, peace, joy and love. Or possibly it’s the turning of the calendar page and the tradition of re?ecting on where we’ve been and where we’re going in the days and years to come.

Whatever the reason, the laughter, tears, and sighs-too-deep-for-words that have accompanied these glimpses of the heart have been good for the soul… which, I suppose, is really the whole idea behind this season-of-light-and-life: to grow the heart and tend the soul. Mission accomplished. “Do you remember… your ?rst love? … the best present you ever gave or got? … when you became skeptical about life?” My favorite, though? “Do you remember the ?rst time you handled ?re?” There have been stories of building bon?res-to-the-sky in the woods, singing late into the night around camp?res at the beach, learning the proper way to start a ?re in the ?replace, smoking cigarettes for the ?rst time out behind the garage; rites and rituals of passage, all.

As for me? I was ?ve when I handled ?re for the very ?rst time. I don’t remember what I was wearing or who was sitting in front of or behind me in the fourth pew from the front of the church that Christmas Eve, but I most de?nitely remember practically bouncing out of my seat in excitement when the overhead lights dimmed and the organ started to play Silent Night. As my dad took his candle and bent over to light my wick from his, all of my wiggles went away. This, I knew, was no small thing. While everybody around me was singing “all is calm, all is bright” I stood stock-still, staring at the ?ame dancing on top of the little white taper nestled in my chubby little ?ngers, wondering how that light could seem so big and so little and so delicate and so strong all at the same time.

I know now that I wasn’t just handling ?re for the ?rst time that night. I was also handling the ?re-y questions of life for the ?rst time, too: how we are all at once so little and so big, delicate and powerful, exhilarated and terri?ed, joyful and sad… but just as I started pondering, the overhead lights went out and the organ stopped playing and I snapped out of my thoughts to see what was going on. The grownups just kept singing those old, old words, though (in four-or-more part harmony, no less), holding their candles high like stars in the sky, making the dark seem a whole lot less scary. When the song was over, everybody just stood there, quiet and still, smiling big, eyes glistening. By the time the organ broke the silence with Joy to the World and the overhead lights ?ickered back on, I felt something in the air that I hadn’t picked up on earlier: joy, maybe? Gratitude? Hope? Love? I couldn’t say. I only knew that whatever it was, it was a good, good thing… and that a little light in the world can make a big difference.

Links for this article at Big Stone House,

Fiddle In the New Year!
- theHumm January 2020

You’re in for a real treat on Sunday, January 5, when the Blue Skies Community Fiddle Orchestra will present their annual Little Christmas Concert. Directed by Cindy McCall, this all-ages group comprises 50+ fiddlers with guitar, percussion, penny whistle, viola, bass, cello and flute accompaniment. They will perform some of their recently perfected delightful repertoire. This enthusiastic bunch rehearses on Saturdays and Wednesdays at the Maberly Hall and hails from the rural areas close by. T......

A Little Light in the World - theHumm January 2020