We have a new song coming out on 10th June – Candlelight

You can presave the link here if you’d like to be notified when it’s available!

Candlelight 

Guided by candlelight

Just one tiny spark will light up the dark 

Guided by candlelight

Guided by candlelight

 

Eclipse into nightfall, alone in the dark

Adrift, obscured, cast away

One single candle, the call of the lark 

Brings promise of the day 

 

Promise of the day 

A candle burning bright 

We will find our way 

Guided by candlelight 

Promise of the day 

A candle burning bright 

We will find our way 

Guided by candlelight 

 

Eclipse into nightfall, alone in the dark

Adrift, obscured, cast away

One single candle, the call of the lark 

Brings promise of the day 

 

Candlelight 

Guided by candlelight

Just one tiny spark will light up the dark 

Guided by candlelight

Guided by candlelight

 

This song is inspired specifically by these words

“Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the single candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.” 

The Buddha

I also heard Billy Conolly, arguably a very different character, say something very similar in a Comic Relief appeal years ago. Compassion does not expire because you’ve shown some to somebody. It’s not like money that runs out. You can continue to be more and more compassionate without your cup running empty. Just like the spark, it can be a tiny gesture. I think sometimes when someone is in a particularly dark place in their life, a small act of kindness can be like a spark in the darkness. I know it’s been like that for me at times. 

Compassion is the candle in this story. I can’t help but feel that ‘finding our way’ is a metaphor for overcoming division between people. At the time of writing, there is disconnect and disequilibrium in the air. People feel disenfranchised. People are angry.  

Just like the candle, your light will not extinguish because you’ve lit someone else’s candle.

It’s an idea I have been inspired by since hearing it when I was young, but it really helped me during some difficult years as an adult. 

This song is inspired by this image. Of all the times I’ve been lost in the dark and needed that one little tiny light to light the way. Of all the times I have been that light, gladly, willingly and with love, and all the times I thought twice about it because of all the times I have been hurt and let down. There have been times in my life when I’ve not wanted to offer any more of myself, because it has not been reciprocated in the past, or worse, it was forsaken. But so often I was hesitant to offer my light because of a hangover from a previous situation when I’d been let down, and on reflection that was irrelevant to the current circumstance. Unrequited light. I think there’s a lyric in there. Furthermore, I see this in other people. Because someone let me down, or I was disappointed by someone else, I am not going to extend that same courtesy to you now, today. Someone abused my trust years ago, so I will not trust you. I never wanted to live like that, but I feared that my darker years had made a cynic of me. I was looking for a way to refuel my faith in humankind without feeling like I was being taken advantage of. This saying provides me with the perspective I need for that. People can let me down time and time again, but becoming cynical and mistrusting only adds up to a failure in human compassion. 

Don’t let your light go out, just because other people have not seen its beauty. You have to see it and protect it for yourself. 

Read More Here

Artwork by Lauren Norton

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