Tag: light

Six Word Story (109)

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Darkness can be oppressive.

A weight that drags, a fear that binds.

Darkness blinds us, but light in concentrated amounts shone in the middle of darkness can also blind us.

Illumination is deceptive, when it shows only a portion of the truth, not the whole story.

If you are trapped in a tunnel, following that light can be just as scary as walking deeper into the shadows. It can be even more painful.

So what do we do, when we are faced with such choices?

Stop, and look around, what does the light show you? What does it hide?

Literally and figuratively the time we take to gather information is so important. Then comes a moment of trust that a light has been placed where it is for a reason.

Sometimes it’s impossible to tell if that light is a light pointing the way to freedom, or warning us. I can’t promise you will make the right choice if you take stock before moving forward. I have been blinded in this way more than once in my life, but one thing I know… Moving forward is always better than sitting in my darkness to rot.

Have you ever had to face a blinding light or painful truth? Tell me about it.

Copyright © Mary Grace van der Kroef

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Morning Snow

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Morning Snow by Mary Grace van der Kroef

It may be dark inside,
but without it’s strangely light.
As the world lay sleeping,
nature donned a blanket, white

Though the sky is thick,
with heavy clouds of gray.
The early morning darkness,
is lightened by winter’s play.

I sit in my dark room,
watch the lights return.
Black to gray, with blue and white.
the seasons complete a turn.

Off in the distance,
past trees and lake, there’s more.
Under clouds horizon peaks
a glimmer over the far shore.

It was white and bright but brief
as if the sun is shy.
It’s been a while since winter played
beneath a sun-filled sky.

So she’ll stay behind her clouds,
soften down her light.
This first encounter, not the time,
she’ll savour her delight.

©Mary Grace van der Kroef 2019

Written at Falcon Trails Resort on October 12, 2019. The morning after the first snowstorm of the year.

The photo is the sunrise view from the chickadee suite.

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Six Word Story (69)

marygracewriting7 Comments

Who?

Why?

There is always a reason someone turns on the lights, strikes a match, or opens shutters. It takes intention.

The effects of that one action go beyond the single act and affect everyone who inhabits the darkness. be them human, bug, or bacteria.

Light, and the act of lighting. Such small things, such large changes.

©2022 Mary Grace van der Kroef

Photo sourced from unsplash.com

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Keep Lit

marygracewriting21 Comments

He didn’t say
we wouldn’t weep while we waited.
He didn’t say
feeding the lantern’s flame,
wouldn’t singe.
He didn’t promise,
finding oil would be easy.
Only “Be ready,”
and the Spirit will with you sit.

©2022 Mary Grace van der Kroef

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Six Word Story (63)

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In the lonely places, in the in between, there is a light that stands witness.

©2022 Mary Grace van der Kroef

Photo sourced from Unsplash.com

7 Where shall I go from your Spirit?
    Or where shall I flee from your presence?
8 If I ascend to heaven, you are there!
    If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!
9 If I take the wings of the morning
    and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
10 even there your hand shall lead me,
    and your right hand shall hold me.
11 If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me,
    and the light about me be night,”
12 even the darkness is not dark to you;
    the night is bright as the day,
    for darkness is as light with you.
Psalm 139: 7-12 English Standard Version
On BibleGateway.com

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Six Word Stories (56)

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It usually surprises people when I tell them, “I do not care for the Christmas season.”
“Arn’t Christians supposed to love Christmas?”

I guess most of them do, but I can’t help but feel an emptiness behind the brightly covered packages and glitz this world throws around during the holiday season. Expectations are high, but things never seem to pan out the way I mean them to. So why write about this now that the Holidays are over, and becoming a memory?

Because the light of Christmas is not supposed to stay locked into a few weeks of the year. The person of Jesus Christ grew and walked away from the manger, taking his flame of light to the very valley of death.

So today I choose to remind myself that though a modern Christmas leaves me empty, and ancient Christ fills me with light.

Look beyond how culture paints things to deep roots.

©2022 Mary Grace van der Kroef

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Six Word Story (44)

marygracewriting7 Comments

If light didn’t exist, the universe as we know it would be very different.

With out it we wouldn’t know what darkness is, or vegetation, or warmth.

Light is a beautiful thing, sometimes searingly so.

The light of the sun can burn human eyes if we look directly at it, yet we need it. It shows us things that, in darkness, go unnoticed. It reveals.

Light is a sister to Truth.

©2021 Mary Grace van der Kroef

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Six Word Story (35)

marygracewriting2 Comments

Even when the sky is overcast, a sunflower always knows where to look.

I am envious of this nature.

“How can you just KNOW?”
“I just do.”

A snippet of a conversation I have had on more than once occasion with someone close to me. How can you JUST know?

It is a nature given to a quiet few, and the sunflower too.

©2021 Mary Grace van der Kroef

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Six Word Stories (22)

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What is hope?

An intangible thing that all humanity grasps for.

Sometimes I imagine I can feel it’s edges like a feather soft thing, just out of reach.

But is it really out of reach? Is hope something to be grasped?

No.

Hope is experienced, not held. Hope is found but not possessed.

It lives in places where logic alone dares not live.

Perspective changes things. It doesn’t change truth, but can give us a wider view of what is true.

Toes can never me mountains, but they can show is a likened beauty, and defy the shoes they are so often crammed into, and hold up the weight of our lives, like the deepest roots of the earth.

As does every shoulder bent in strain, stooped in pain, and prostrate in prayer.

©2021 Mary Grace van der Kroef

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Six Word Stories (20)

marygracewriting3 Comments

The presence of light has such power. It can illuminate or bind us.

Darkness shreds in the presence of even a single flame.

It sets a mood and tells a story.

It’s an element that shouts volumes, with just a whispered presence.

Light is energy. Without it, growth is impossible.

Nature has a way of reclaiming what man uses and then forgets.

It doesn’t see our castoffs as no longer needed, it knows that it’s all still a part of the matter making up this world.

We can’t separate it out.

As nature reclaims its own pieces from the aftermath of us, it has its own stories to tell us.

Will we take the time to read them?

Stones remember, even when understanding is lost and history is forgotten.

Stones remember.

©2021 Mary Grace van der Kroef

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