Warning: this is an edit-free zone:

It’s 3:30 AM, the beginning of a brand new day!

Last night, I posted a weary post. One that stems from grief and feeling overwhelmed and disenchanted. While the hurricane business and missing family and all the tragedy has been going on, I’ve also been dealing with demanding personal business and professional business. The trifecta got to me. But I refuse to wallow, and I refuse to go to bed at night until I can examine situations from my end and be at peace with them.

So that’s what I did last night. I determined what I could do for the family on the hurricane challenges, for those who aren’t fortunate enough to have family; then turned to those personal and professional matters and sought constructive solutions that were win/win situations. That’s the best I can do on any of it, and knowing I’d done it, I found my peace and slept with an easy mind and a calm heart.

On awakening, like everyone else, I have my rituals. One of them is to read from the Bible and then to pull a quote for the day and reflect on how the two–the reading and the quote–interrelate. The quote for today is:

“There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it.” -Edith Wharton

There are a lot of ways to look at that quote. And I expect one sees in it what they’re looking for at the time. Today, my interpretation of it is that we’re all both candles and mirrors at different points in time on different issues and in different situations.

I think that’s a good thing. When we’re capable of creating paths (whether we really want to walk them or we feel compelled to walk them for the greater good), of doing things that need doing (pleasant or not), or we take action to make situations better, we’re the candle.

When we are the candle, we emit light into shadows and darkness and others see it and find their way or reflect it, emulating us, like mirrors. When your children mimic your actions. If you ask them for something and always say thank you, then they automatically do, too. When you treat others with respect, conduct yourself with dignity and grace, then others are more apt to treat you that way, as well. Not certain to, but more apt to. With free will, that’s the best you can do: be responsible for yourself.

When you’re the candle, you choose what light you cast. Knowing others reflect it, you should aspire to have it be the best you have to give.

When others are the candle and we act in harmony with them, then we are the mirror that reflects their light. This is why it is so important to choose those you surround yourself with carefully. If the light they cast is negative, harmful, hurtful–either inflicted directly or condoned–then you reflect it. If it is positive and constructive and helpful–either inflicted directly or condoned–then you reflect it.

When you’re the mirror–and at times we all are–then you don’t choose good or bad, right or wrong, negative or positive, or destructive or constructive. You simply reflect.

I’m being nudged this morning to write this post, and I never question spiritual nudgings. But this reads like a lecture on life, and I guess when you get down to it, it is. Yet like everything else it does apply to writing.

Writing is all about characters–people–and if you don’t believe that, take Scarlet and Rhett out of GONE WITH THE WIND and see what you’ve got left. Since writing is about people, it is a mirror that reflects light.

Which makes the point of this that every author is a candle. And all the fiction the author produces is a mirror that reflects the light from her candle. That is a compass for authors to consider the impact of what they write. To consider the light they emit that others will mirror and reflect.

Carrying this one step further, solely into the fictional world, the characters are candles or mirrors, too. As writers, we serve them well by remembering that.

I hope this helps–and that you all have a glorious day filled with joy and many…

Blessings,

Vicki

P.S. Because I know someone is going to ask, I’ll just answer the why question now.

I get these nudges often, and when I do, I heed them and post. Without fail, someone who gains some something from the post emails to say so. That’s held true in all the five (or whatever it’s been now) years that I’ve done this. At first, I considered it coincidence. Now I accept that in these posts, I’m not the candle. I’m a mirror. 🙂

Vic

Vicki Hinze

www.vickihinze.com
www.bombshellauthors.com (owner)
www.itgirlsseries.com (owner)
HURRICANE WRITERS CHECK IN: www.itgirlsseries.com/hurricane.htm