My husband ran into mutual acquaintance the other day, and asked “how are you?” to which he was answered, “we got a new electric car”. Which I thought was a curious response. Then I read this quote from the writer Jeanette Winterson, and it made more sense. A darling friend of mine from high school, shared it recently. She uses this in her teaching. “All these years later and I still turn off the lights and light a candle when I tell a story to a class. The children love it and there is always a calmness to the class afterwards- especially when the lights stay off.” I want to morph magically into a child and go sit at her feet… I think it would be delightful. But I guess the magic of it all is, we can. Just light the candle, wherever you are, and let the flickering light work its own magic, and open up space for a different kind of exchange, one that you might be craving. Also, full acknowledgment of the excitement for making an investment in something new and meaningful to you. And, how are you?

‘I have noticed when all the lights are on, people tend to talk about what they are doing – their outer lives. Sitting round in candlelight or firelight, people start to talk about how they are feeling – their inner lives. They speak subjectively, they argue less, there are longer pauses. To sit alone without electric light is curiously creative. I have my best ideas at dawn or at nightfall, but not if I switch on the lights, then I start thinking about projects, demands, deadlines, and the shadows and shapes of the house become objects , not suggestions, things that need to be done, not a background to thought’

Jeanette Winterson