Don’t Forget the Lights, a guest post by Jennifer Ann Richter
Don’t Forget the Lights, a guest post by Jennifer Ann Richter
While I sat at my computer planning this post, my neighbor was hard at work on his own project. He’d gotten an unusually late start—it was well into December—but he soldiered on, and before long, I was living next to a light extravaganza that rivaled the Vegas Strip. The festive display included a herd of illuminated reindeer grazing right outside my office.
Time to shut the blinds.
The herd of glowing deer beginning to gather outside my window.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m no sparkling reindeer hater, especially during the holiday season. But sometimes they were just—well, too much. Darkness helped me focus better. And to be honest, it better matched the melancholy that often creeps up on me at that time of year. Yes, darkness was much more suitable.
But then it got me thinking: What’s my excuse for rest of the year?
How often have I preferred darkness to light? If I’m honest, way too much. But I know I’m not alone in that.
There’s quite a bit of wallowing in darkness nowadays—from doom scrolling to focusing too long on the dark corners of our own lives. What we end up with is malaise and despair (not to mention “tech neck”).
We have to remember to look up and out and into the light.
A dazzling sky above the Walmart parking lot. Sometimes it pays to just stop and look up.
That can mean lots of things. For me, praying for others and praising God brings light into my soul. Exploring nature and looking up into the sky does it, too. And of course, as a longtime reader and writer, I’ve found light in words. My hope is that young people also find it in the pages of my books.
In my first published novel,
Bird Nerd
, the joys of looking up and out into the trees and sky to find birds brought light into Nyla’s life. Her new hobby not only connected her to the natural world, but as conflicts arose, it opened up a door for her to gain confidence, appreciate her own uniqueness, and forge new and renewed friendships.
My latest novel centers on another light—the brightest one in our night sky. Set in the near future world of 2079,
The Star of Moon Village
tells the story of a girl who gets a chance to live out her dream of voyaging to the moon.
At twelve going on thirteen, Priscilla is the youngest among her fellow travelers from the U.S., Mexico, and Canada, and is celebrated as the youngest person ever to step foot on lunar soil.
Nevertheless, light and darkness do share the same spaces—a fact Priscilla knows all too well, having lost a loved one years earlier. What she doesn’t realize is that they can share the same spaces even in the utopia that she’s made the moon out to be. Even within her very own heart. So when things derail to the point where all hope seems lost, it serves her to focus on the light, on what she loves, and what she’d love to share with the world.
The Star of Moon Village
holds a special place in my heart because long before I knew anything about birdwatching, I w…