A short story that had an unexpected impact on me was written by Lindasue Marshall, a clinical social worker, whom I had the honor of training with for a short period of time. She wrote this unpublished story, Remember the Light, A Story for Every Child and Your Inner Child, narrated by a guardian angel who reminds the reader that no matter what happens to you there is always light from within to give you what you need. But, there are certain problems the guardian angel must take into consideration: use of defense mechanisms makes it hard for humans to access the light, and further, humans forget they even have the power of inner light. The narrator tells the story of a new guardian angel whose first task it is to determine which of the newborn babies in the nursery deserves to have a guardian angel. (Excerpts follow)
Now angels can see something that humans can’t. Angels can see the bright shining light in each child. This light is easy for angels to see because they themselves are made of light. So the angel looked for a minute at all the differently shaped and colored babes and saw they all had bright shining lights. She turned to the head guardian angel and said, “They all deserve guardian angels.”
After passing her first test she is given the assignment to guard four babies and follow them throughout their lives by figuring out what they need and then help them to get it.
The new guardian angel follows the first infant home from the hospital. This infant, full of joy with inner light shining brightly is greeted with love and the bright shining lights of the family upon arrival. Surrounded by this love and light the child continues to shine.
Unfortunately, there is a person whose own light is so dark it can hardly be seen. This person gets too close to this child when the child is young and helpless and steals some of the child’s light....
This person of little light continues to steal light from the child. The child is frightened and tries to cover up. One cover does not seem enough so the child adds another and another, and soon is buried in covers. Now the child feels somewhat safer, but still not completely safe. Sadly, the child’s own inner light is also hidden. Under all those covers it is hard to move around and be free, but the child is too frightened to give up.
The guardian angel visits all four babies, follows them as they grow and determines what each child needs...
That night, when the children are fast asleep, the guardian angel goes to the home of the first child. She wakes the child just to the place where you are not quite awake and not quite asleep. The angel then says, “I am your guardian angel and I am here to let you know that you have everything you need. I am going to let you see that you are connected to all you need and let you know that you can use it all the time."
The guardian angel, using her light, reaches deep into the child past all of the covers and shields. She pulls out a piece of the child’s own guiding light and says, “This light is so amazing. It is part of you, and it is connected to the greatest source of power and energy in the universe.
All you have to do is think of this light and it will shine brighter and stronger for you. When you think of it, and let it shine bright and strong, you will be filled with the light and protected from all the dark darts. Do you know what happens when darkness comes into contact with light? That’s right, it disappears. You can go back to sleep and think about the light. When you imagine all the dark darts coming you will know they will disappear the minute they touch your brightly shining light.
After you awake in the morning, if you feel any dark darts coming, just remember the light. Let the light shine and you will not need all those shields. One at a time you can let go of the shields. Use the strength of the light, realize you are safe, and the light will protect you.
After the angel visits all four children and shows them their light, she returns to the head guardian angel to ask how she is doing.
The head guardian angel smiles and says, “You did very well! You found out the problems and came up with a good plan, but I also have to tell you something about human beings. Human beings forget things. They forget things all the time. That’s how they are.
The truth, as you and I know, is that loving light, energy, and power is always around. We are always able to have complete love and understanding just by using the power within to connect with it. Human beings forget that. They know it because the light is within them, but they still forget it. Now your job is to keep reminding them for the rest of their lives.
And here is where, the first time this story was read to me, I came to believe, fully, in the light within and all the power we have as humans.
You can use all different ways to remind them. You can use books, music, art, poetry, or even TV and movies. You can help them see the light in sunsets, flowers, and birds. You can whisper in their ears and they will hear it as a thought. You can bring them signs in their dreams. You can encourage one person to tell another. There are many creative ways to call up the memory of the light so they can use it.
The story ends here:
So the guardian angel went back and continues to remind the children of the light, just as all the other guardian angels, even yours, do to this very day.
May 2014 be filled with opportunities to recognize our inner light and draw upon the magic of art, imagination and communication to remind others the power of their love and light.
With this, I'll leave you images that are meant to connect us to our natural world, remind us about the impact we have on our environment, and the need for positive change.
"Aiming to raise awareness of the issue of ocean plastic pollution, photographer Kim Preston's series called Plastic Pacific features plastic objects made to look like sea creatures they are killing."
"It's a sobering fact that the world's coral reefs -- habitat to a quarter of marine wildlife -- are facing serious danger from ocean pollution and acidification, warming temperatures and human pressures like overfishing and tourism.
Of course, coral regeneration can be helped along; Mexico-based artist and 'eco-sculptor' Jason de Caires Taylor is doing just that with cement sculptures that are placed underwater to provide floating organisms like sponges, starfish and tunicates a place to anchor and form coral (since the sea floor is too soft and sandy)."
"What would it be like to swim down through the estimated 100 million tons of trash swirling around in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch? Mandy Barker's photographs bring viewers probably as close as they'd ever want to come to finding out.
Looking at the images in the U.K.-based artist's "SOUP" series creates the vertiginous feeling of sinking into the ocean, watching colorful -- but deadly -- bits of plastic in all shapes, sizes, and hues rise through the blackness of the deep sea."
"French artist Mathilde Roussel creates eerie sculptures of human forms that are seeded with wheat grass in a nod to Egyptian Mythology and Osiris, the God of renewal, says the artist. Osiris is also the personification of the fertile land and the natural cycles: death and rebirth, dryness and fertility."
"Portland-based photographer Jon Duenas has a very neat idea for literally reconnecting people with nature: double exposure photographs. His series of photographs superimposing landscapes over portraits of women have a beautiful, sometimes eery, effect. "I think that anything the viewer gets when they connect with my photos is much more valuable than anything I could tell you about what I think they're supposed to mean... when I see them, I see the longing I have to connect with my surroundings and with nature, and the knowledge that we're all made up of the same stuff. Not in a metaphysical or abstract way. But in a concrete, scientific way. But like I said, that's what I personally get out of them. What someone else gets is just as valuable and true."
"Word Above the Street is a new project aimed to turn water tanks in New York City into public works of art. To the artists...they are "a museum waiting to happen. The arts and technology non-profit, dedicated to social justice and environmental awareness, is working to transform 100 tanks around the Big Apple into public works of art, by Jay-Z, Jeff Koons, and more than 30 other artists"
"Bringing to mind the sand mandalas painstakingly sprinkled by Tibetan monks, Yamamoto's creations, which take hundreds of hours to pour, are also ritually destroyed at the end of their creation and viewing. In a gesture of profound poetry, viewers help to scoop up the salt and return it to the sea, where it can begin its life anew."
Source:
TreeHugger: The Most Inspiring Art of 2012
Happy New Year
Kitchen Table Kibitzing is a community series for those who wish to share part of the evening around a virtual kitchen table with kossacks who are caring and supportive of one another. So bring your stories, jokes, photos, funny pics, music, and interesting videos, as well as links—including quotations—to diaries, news stories, and books that you think this community would appreciate.
Readers may notice that most who post diaries and comments in this series already know one another to some degree, but newcomers should not feel excluded. We welcome guests at our kitchen table, and hope to make some new friends as well.