“We’ll always leave the light on for you” my dad said to me before I pulled out of the driveway starting my journey back to college. His words stayed with me. These were some of the warmest words he had ever said to me. Like a vote of stabilizing confidence blessing me into the wider world. Like you go out and do your thing out there. I’ll be here, where you can come back and rest and refresh (and he is still there, and I have done that over the years). Something about those words and that image of the warm light of his country home, a glorified cabin in the woods, standing amidst the deep, rural, uninterrupted darkness, stayed with me. It’s not a fully formed thought yet, but something about the idea of the beacon in the night, offering rest, support and also a space for inspiration, being an aspect of the peacemakers in the world, is coming into focus for me.

Some months back, Osheta said on a vlog that she is grateful for the privilege of getting to “awaken imaginations for how people can be peacemakers in their own context”. I take that to mean she enjoys inspiring people to action and contemplation and to all that they are called to in their peacemaking work. One thing that is shifting for me through our time together here is feeling inspired and awakened in my imagination of what creative offerings I can offer up to also inspire people. My imagination is growing and awakening. I am seeing more of the creative and innovative ways that I can be a peacemaker in my own context and with my own gifts. Ways that we can be the supporters leaving the light on for each other. We can be the rest and inspiration for each other in so many helpful ways. We can be the people offering a listening ear, a challenging conversation or companionship on the journey. We can be the creatives whose stories, poems, songs and creations move people, and invite people to see things a new way.

In Osheta’s book she quoted MLK when he said, “Only when it is dark enough can you see the stars”. And in highlighting this idea of light in darkness as applied to justice work, Dr. King gives purpose to the stars but also to the darkness. What if our desire for things to be made right is our own first step, our intention to get us to give attention to what is becoming alive within us? And what if all that we really need to make the world as we wish it would be is already alive and at work within us, waiting for us to act on it? What if we are the peacemakers because we have lifted our heads to heed that call? Because we have agreed to be led by the Spirit to wield and hone our tools of empowerment, whatever form those take for us as unique individuals?

There are creative forces at work within me that have always been there. They have been waiting for me to pay more attention to them, to give them purpose and to value them as potential inspiration for others. Peacemaking, justice, bettering the world that we leave to our children is a worthy purpose. I am learning to see how I can participate in peacemaking in some creative ways that I had realized before. It takes aiming my talents toward these goals. And to that end, what if Spirit is waiting for me more than I am waiting for Spirit? It occurs to me that I also experience God as the other Father who always ‘leaves the light on for me’ – and for all of us. Offering rest and inspiration as I seek to share my gifts in the wider world. These ideas are still evolving.