About Delight The World
Here’s what inspired the name…
About 20 years ago, I was sitting on my couch, sipping a cup of tea and basking in the beauty of the lights twinkling on my Christmas tree. It was the winter solstice, the darkest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere, and I couldn’t help but muse about our relationship to the light.
There’s less light during the winter solstice, but the sun hasn’t disappeared. It is only our proximity to it that’s changed. The same is true for the light inside of us. The light doesn’t fade, but shame, fear, self-criticism, and emotional pain can obstruct our ability to connect with it.
As I contemplated this, I happened to look down at the message on my teabag, which said, “Delight the world with compassion, kindness, and grace.” What a powerful and inspiring idea. I thought this was a synchronistic message from the universe, so I bought the URL, knowing I’d use it someday.
“There are two ways of spreading light:
to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it.”
– Edith Wharton
I’ve always loved the word “delight.”
To me, it means “of the light,” and I see this as a metaphor for the light inside us.
With all the darkness, fear, grief, sadness, and uncertainty in our world today, I wanted to create a place to come together as a community. A place where we can restore our connection to the light and help each other “Delight The World” with love, light, kindness, compassion, beauty, and grace.
When I lived in New England…
There was a festival of lights every year in December.
All the shops in our tiny coastal town had luminaries lining the pathway leading up to their doors. There was a magical feel in the air. One year, while I was waiting in line for hot chocolate, a neighbor told me the history of this tradition.
Before we had electricity, everyone in town carried their own tin lantern with a unique pattern of light carved into it. People recognized you in the dark by your unique pattern of light that radiated from your lantern.
I thought this was another beautiful and relevant metaphor for the light inside us!
I’m inviting you to join me.
Connect with the light inside of you and use it for good in the world outside of you!
And please remember, everyone struggles with this at times. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the darkness in our world, get temporarily disconnected from the light within, and doubt your ability to make a difference.
Some days you’ll give the light, and some days you’ll receive the light.
If you are a light-seeker, healer, teacher, activist, nature-lover, and modern-day mystic, you are welcome here. And if you are feeling sad, lonely, disconnected, or hopeless, you are welcome here, too!
And on the days you doubt that small things matter, remember the butterfly effect, where the migratory pattern of a butterfly’s wings affects weather patterns worldwide.
Even the simplest act of kindness can give someone hope, restore their sense of belonging, and rekindle their connection to the light inside of them.
Have you ever heard the statistic that it only takes 20% of the population today to create lasting and systemic change? This idea inspires me, and I hope it inspires you, too!
And, as the wise words of Margaret Mead remind us…
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”
Let’s connect and explore how we can work together and BE the light. (813) 336-2173
One of my greatest sources of inspiration for “being the light” is the medieval mystic St. Francis. My greatest desire is to live my life as the embodiment of this prayer:
The Prayer of St. Francis
O Divine Love,
Make me a channel of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is friction, union;
Where there is error, truth;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
Where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Love,
Grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console,
To be understood as to understand,
To be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive,
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned.
It is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Amen.
