06/26/15

This is a story inspired by one of the amazing folks in the writing exercise I took part in this week.

There once was this little girl who lived mostly alone.  She had no mirrors to see what she looked like so she imagined what she might be.  There was a glow from her that she could sometimes see ever so vaguely in the eyes of the bugs that would venture within view of her so she thought she must be a candle.  She felt she was probably a beautiful candle because she felt pretty, but the things that were coming toward her and then diverting away never got close enough for the clear reflection from their eyes to let her know for sure.

She had heard from the wind that there would be ones who wanted to douse her flame by throwing themselves at it so she should be wary and to not let her glow be too bright.  They never really seemed to reach her so she thought it best to keep the glow low although she secretly wished to shine brighter.  Each time she raised her light level though, the wind would whisper that she had better be careful because soon things would be coming toward her with intentions to extinguish her light again.

For years she listened each time the wind told her to not get too bright.  The wind seemed to know when the things that made her feel uncomfortable were coming her way. So she listened.  Somewhere though, she felt she had a purpose that the wind would not let her hear.

One night as she listened to the waves crash against the shore near where she lived, she could feel the sea changing.  It was dark and storm clouds were overhead and she could feel the churn of waves splashing near her.  Normally by now she would hear the wind talking but tonight the turbulence seamed to come from below and did not include the wind.

The moon was now setting and the sky was heavy with clouds.  The clouds became heavier than she ever remembered.  Soon she could only feel the agitation of the sea but could not even see the rocks below her.

She was not sure what she should do.  Normally the wind would have told her to be careful of being too bright about now but somehow she felt that if she would just turn up her light this one time that maybe the icy particles in the heavy clouds would be enough for her to just this once see herself in at least a translucent form.

So she allowed her light to shine. She sent out her radiant energy like she had never dared before.

All at once she heard yelling and screaming. First she wasn’t sure if it was her or something else.  She didn’t immediately realize that it  was one of the creatures the wind had told her about that was nearly upon her.  Before she could even lower her light the beast had come withing splashing distance to her.

The clouds had lightened and had raised up and it started to rain. She could now see so much clearer than just moments ago.

To her horror there were things rushing around the skin of the beast pulling at it’s hairs and yelling to one another.  Part of it’s skin seem to be loose and flapping loosely  in the wind.  Just as she was about to lower her light in self preservation, the thing turned and the eyes reflected back on her.

She could see her glow from the reflection in those eyes.  She didn’t see a candle. She saw a strong fortress with rays of intense light.  This wasn’t a flicker that she thought she must have been.  She was beacon.  She didn’t know if it was the rain or if she was crying to realize that she had this incredible light within her all along.  All at once she realized that it was in her allowing herself to shine that had saved her.  Had she not glowed in her brightest, the creature surely would have crashed into her.  It was her shining that allowed them both to go unscathed.

From then on, it mattered not what the wind would whisper or howl at her, she allowed herself to shine at her brightest.

And once she did, she found that she too was noticed more and soon was visited by all sorts of beings who wanted to be in her glow.  Soon, she noticed that the beasts the wind had warned her of were not trying to harm her. In fact, now that her light was always bright, more came to pass by her on the ocean side.

On the land side, people started to come and visit from there also as her light was seen and spoken of from all around.

If you visit, you will see a plaque near the end of the parking lot that was made for all the visitors.  It will tell you of “Sacha’s Lighthouse” and how it was the first unmanned solar powered lighthouse of the region.  But it was not a common route for ships to pass, as the light in the early days was not consistent.  In fact, when the wind was blowing the most, the light was the dimmest.  Ships for many years took alternate routes for fear of running ashore.  The cause for the lights dimming could never be found, but since the night of an epic fog where one ship came within moments of smashing right into the point where the lighthouse stood, the lights have never since dimmed.

Love Sally