Light became an escape from burnout (or worse) as I approached mid-life, but getting out the door of toxic work environments was only the beginning. I wandered in the proverbial desert for a few years, bouncing from project to project, learning a few hard lessons along the way, and reinvigorating my love for and understanding of architectural lighting. Real transformation of my career came as a surprise where I least expected to find it…in Sunday School.
I have a long history with faith and Christianity, not all of it positive, and my resulting skepticism means I often spend more time with one eyebrow raised and my arms crossed. It took decades before I realized it was okay to have doubts and raise questions. I certainly didn’t when I was a kid in Sunday School.
Okay, so we don’t call it Sunday School anymore, instead using updated names like “Adult Christian Education.” In my particular corner of the religious world, which has been positively influenced by some hippie non-denominational counter-cultural Christians, progressive anabaptist Mennonite congregations, and even a couple of Episcopal priest family members, Christian Education can mean a lot of different things. I’ve sat through classes on how to be more welcoming and inclusive, how to read a particular book of the Bible, how to parent. And one summer I decided to attend Jane Roeschley’s “Finding your Spiritual Gifts” class.
Pastor Jane is one of those quiet influencers, kind and thoughtful, insightful and wise. You don’t sign up for a Sunday School class with Pastor Jane thinking “okay, this is going to completely alter my life’s course,” but you might think “this is going to be life-affirming.” She exudes warmth. And she happens to enjoy learning about Myers-Briggs, Enneagrams, and other methods of self-discovery. She accumulated enough knowledge that she decided to lead a class on the subject, and I signed up. And I made a discovery about light.
Light is pretty awesome. And our ancestors knew this, but we have forgotten.
In the years following the class, I would go on to discover that Light has been a central element of many (perhaps all) of our ancestral stories. Reverence for light carries through many world religions as a metaphor or as gods themselves. Ancient Greeks worshipped the Titan Helios, who rode a flaming chariot into the sky each morning to bring light to Earth. Ancient Egyptians worshipped the sun god Ra. Diwali is the Hindu Festival of Lights. The Quran states that God is the light of the heavens and earth. Buddhists seek enlightenment. Mayans built their temples and cities to orient to the sun, carefully calculating solstice and equinox. The builders of Stonehenge and the stone circles in Senegal also built for specific sunlight moments of the year.
And while I knew the story of creation told in the book of Genesis from a very young age, I was in Pastor Jane’s class when one element became clear: the first spoken words of the Hebrew God are “Let there be light.”
I won’t get deep into religion or faith in this blog- let’s do coffee if you want to chat- but I will say that I believe God spoke and there was Light…and if we had been alive to see it we probably would have seen a very, very, big bang. Yes, even the non-religious scientific explanation for the origins of the universe begins with lots and lots of light. There is no escaping its importance.
While the realization that light was a critical component of human history and modern human existence settled into my brain, I also spent time studying my own personality, what makes me tick. Pastor Jane had us do several personality surveys, and through the work I concluded that I was made to help others, that helping others is where I really get joy and meaning. Looking back, some of my favorite moments in life have been helping others, whether that be on a roof in Mississippi or a classroom in Illinois or a conference in Phoenix. I even love helping my neighbors…I used to look forward to torrential downpours at a previous house because the street flooded and I got to push unwitting motorists through the flood to dry ground on the other side.
(Besides Sunday School, I have also spent a lot of time in therapy learning how to manage anxiety and self-doubt. One of the core human needs outlined in one exercise is the need for dignity…and dignity is achieved by making a meaningful difference in the lives of others. Or, to put it more simply, dignity comes from helping others.)
Eventually I would lay out a few key discoveries on the table and choose a path forward. I was made to help others; Light is the first gift of the universe; and I had a history of light as a tool, process, and toy. It quickly became clear that my personal and professional mission in life was to help others with light.
At that point I was a sole-practitioner, which is a nicer way of saying “self-employed” that does not get people looking at you as if you really just drink a lot and go to music festivals but don’t really have a job. Since I was the entirety of the business, I got to decide where it was headed, and even what it was named.
I decided to make a statement with the business name, to make clear what I believed, that light can help you live a better life. Our mission exists in the tagline: and we can help you with light. It’s a funny name for a company, and I sometimes have my doubts, but it stuck and serves as a constant reminder that this is about something bigger than me, bigger than us, bigger than just making things look cool.
Light is a gift, and I continue to enjoy unwrapping it. Gifts are even better when you share them with others…but with a gift as crucial and beautiful as light, there are a great many ways to share it. Once I landed on light as a gift, I needed to make a decision. Would I return to the performing arts? Would I continue on my commercial lighting path? Would I move outdoors and tackle landscape? Or would I try to make better lighting accessible to more people at home?
Once my decision was made, I had to hold on to light for dear life as it took me on the wildest ride of my career. Stay tuned to hear more.
Read more of my story in the Finding the Gift series HERE.
the language of light 