Matches Struck Unexpectedly In The Dark

striking the match

Lindsey over at A Design So Vast drew my attention to a gorgeous Virginia Woolf quote. I supposed I shouldn’t have been surprised that Woolf’s message moved me. After all, “To The Lighthouse” was one of my favorite books when I was growing up and it was mostly sentiment over story.

I am struck by the gift in Woolf’s words.

“What is the meaning of life? … a simple question; one that seemed to close in on one with the years. The great revelation had never come. The great revelation perhaps never did come. Instead, there were little daily miracles, illuminations, matches struck unexpectedly in the dark.”

I used to attend only to the romance in Woolf’s phrases. Now, I understand her nuggets of truth.

Tell me if this ever happens for you, too…

The little bursts of illumination that occur randomly on any given day keep catching me by surprise. I find myself so delighted, amused, even (frequently) flummoxed by them that the overwhelming meaning-of-life query about which Woolf speaks, and which used to plague me with uncertainty and a spinning head, is of less importance.

For this moment, I don’t need the answer to any grand question. I just want to keep playing in the sumptuous darkness of life’s mysteries, and clapping in glee with every strike of the proverbial match that brings kaleidoscopes of light to the dance.

Have you ever been in a similar place?

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