In the animated movie Tangled, the fairytale teenager Rapunzel is a healer who is favored by the light. She is fascinated by the lights she sees at the palace on her birthday and wants to experience them firsthand. This enchanting film encourages us to look at the various lights in our lives, and so does the Quaker author of an excerpt from this book:
"At first the list may be short — sunlight and moonlight. But, if you begin to pay attention, you'll notice variations or gradations of these — summer sunlight and winter sunlight. Or late summer sunlight and early summer sunlight. Early summer morning, early summer midday, and early summer sunset. Besides naming them, write down your perception of the differences in tone, hue, and intensity. Is the light hard with distinct shadows or soft? How do the different types of light make you feel physically, emotionally, and spiritually? Do some lights bring you closer to God? Why might that be so?
"The great photographer Ansel Adams said, 'God created light and he divided it into ten zones.' Actually, while God created light, it was Adams who defined it by ten zones — a system he developed to help him control the range of values from light to dark within his photographs. God only knows how many zones there really are . . . We cannot truly control light, but we can at least learn how to see by it so that we can behold the divine that surrounds us." 'Every generous act of giving, with every perfect gift, coming down from the Father of Lights,' says the writer of the book of James. Every light is a gift from the Father of Lights — the plural is very important. The one who gave us life also gives us lights. And sight and sights."
— J. Brent Bill in Mind the Light: Learning to See with Spiritual Eyes
Two Hasidic Jews on Light:
• "An infinite light is hidden in every good deed."
— Rabbi Shneur Zalaman of Lia
• "Everyone is wrapped in a holy light, which shines brightest in our hour of love."
— Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev in Hasidic Wisdom: Sayings from Jewish Sages by Dov Peretz Elkins and Jonathan Elkins'
Practicing Spirituality with Light: One Sufi and One Buddhist Practice
• "Practice sending light from your heart to the heart of every human soul you meet and, and also, to the spirit of whatever you come in contact with: animals, trees, plants, flowers, water, stones, etc. This awakens and expands the Light in you."
— Jamal Rahman in The Fragrance of Faith: The Enlightened Heart of Islam
• "Our practice of mindfulness is to recite this verse as we turn on a light in a room:
Forgetfulness is the darkness,
mindfulness is the light.
I bring awareness,
to shine upon all life."
— Thich Nhat Hanh in For a Future to Be Possible: Buddhist Ethics for Everyday Life