Weekly Photo Challenge – Let There Be Light

“Yours is the light by which my spirit’s born: – you are my sun, my moon, and all my stars.”

E.E.Cummings

STARRY, STARRY NIGHT

This week in the U.S. we are celebrating Thanksgiving. Coincidentally, we are at the same time celebrating Hanukkah, the Festival of Lights.  How appropriate then, that Ben has challenged us to share some of light’s sources.

When I consider the subject, there are four things that come immediately to my mind.  First, as seen above, the stars.  The very evidence of the birth of our universe. Second, the greatest of all light sources, the sun:

AUTUMN SUNSET, KIAWAH

“We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.”

Plato

Third, the moon – which determines the tides that impact all life, and in fact may have influenced the very beginning of human life.*

MOONLIGHT, KIAWAH ISLAND

“Moonlight drowns out all but the brightest stars.”

J.R.R. Tolkien

And finally, fire – the first light ever created by man, which serves us in so many ways.

LIGHT OF LIGHTS

“How far the little candle throws his beams! So shines a good deed in a weary world.” 

William Shakespeare

These candles are from my visit to a Buddhist temple, where they memorialized loved ones who are no longer of this world.  Let them also serve as a reminder to give thanks – for nature’s gifts of light, for loved ones here with us, and finally for loved ones here in spirit only. Let them be always in our hearts even if they no longer sit at our table.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

To see the lights of other bloggers, click here.

* Source, Scientific American, http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=moon-life-tides

 

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Tags: weekly photo challenge

• December 1, 2013
• Photography, Weekly Challenge, Weekly Photo Challenge
• 118 Comments