Weekly photo challenge …. let there be light

I celebrate light even if it is only a tiny glow; each time I enter a darkened room.  

As a child I lived with my parents, little sisters and baby brother on a houseboat. We had no electricity; we were reliant on paraffin lamps and a fire that burned drift wood.  All of which was carefully monitored by mother or father.  During the summer this was not a problem; but the winter months were darker and colder than they should have been. Occasionally we children were left unattended.  Sometimes after school we would come home to cold and darkness; my dad didn’t come home until 5.30 and my mum perhaps delayed while shopping.  So we, unable to ‘make’ light or heat would huddle together until they returned.  This didn’t happen often, but they might go out occasionally to play cards with the neighbours and leave us to watch the last embers of the fire fade and take ourselves to bed, in the darkness.

While I was not particularly afraid of the dark; it was the feeling of loneliness and cold that came with it that has remained with me til this day.  I would lay in the darkness wishing them to return to bring light and warmth.

So now I enjoy light; not brilliance but comforting glowing pockets. I say hello and welcome!