I believe (metaphorically) that there’s a switch in the center of your soul, one that, when you turn it on, fills you up with light. Maybe you’ve found your switch or maybe you’re still searching for it, walking in the dark and feeling for it by running your hand along the wall. If it’s the latter, keep feeling; I know it’s there somewhere.
It’s not, however, just a matter of finding it and turning it on. The real trick is to leave it on.
When I first found my switch, the one marked poetry, it wasn’t what I expected, so I quickly turned it off. But I kept coming back to it, and every time I flipped it on I noticed how much I liked the glow and I’d leave it on a little while longer.
Eventually, however, I’d turn it off again. I even tried installing other lights, ones I’d seen in life’s version of Better Homes and Gardens, but even in combination they never produced the kind of illumination that one flick of the poetry switch provided for me.
Recently, something clicked. I flipped that switch to the on position and then secured it with duct tape. I made a sign reading “Please leave this alone. Do not touch.” and placed it beside the switch. I decided to leave the light on.
Now, visitors keep showing up. They are ideas that are drawn to the light and they seem to be coming from everywhere. I have the sense they were always out there, walking around in the dark, waiting for me to turn the light on and leave it on so they could find their way home.
You too have something that lights you up like no other thing can. When you find it, don’t just switch it on, leave it on.
Even if some find it too bright or others too dim, as long as it lights you up, leave it on. Then get ready for company.
Are you getting all the Quiet Inspiration you need? Subscribe to Quiet Inspiration, the Mildly Creative Newsletter. You can also subscribe to these blog posts via RSS feed or by Email.
{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
Great post, Ken! I’ve got a poetry switch myself that I kept turned off for years because I never liked poetry. Never understood it, never liked the rules I was taught in school for writing it (which I have fortunately long since forgotten.) I don’t like restrictions on what I write. It feels like my creativity is being stifled. Anyway, a couple of months ago, during a particularly trying time for me emotionally, I started to write. I figured it would be a regular journal entry, but it ended up being in poetry form.
At first I got upset, because I don’t like poetry, the rules, etc., but then I realized it was going to help me to heal and I just let it flow. It was cathartic for me and after that crisis was over, I started writing some other poems about things that inspired me. I did really well there, but then my perfectionist tendencies kicked in and I wound up putting the poems down and have not revisited them as yet, but my brain keeps at me to just finish them and let them be what they are-a part of me, where I’m at, right now, with imperfections and all.
Thank you for sharing your poetry with us. You have a gift for inspiring people and you may see some of my own poetry before long.
Best wishes.
Thanks for the encouragement! Love the metaphor and the story.
Sonia’s latest article Compassion for the Drama Triangle
I really needed to hear this as I turn on the light and peer at what has been illuminated, possibly for the first time.
Your poetry is stunning. Each new one is a revelation to me, of your talent and of my thoughts. So, thank you. Thank you for keeping your light on.
Clearly Ken you have found that light and figured out how to leave it on. Thanks for the encouragement.
.-= Helen´s last blog ..Going out on a limb…or not =-.
Ken, you will ALWAYS have company.
.-= Laurie Foley´s last blog ..Values-Driven Resolutions (and a worksheet, too!) =-.
Wonderful Ken!!
I was warmed by the metaphor… and encourage by your story!! Keep them coming!
Hi Ken,
Love the synchronicity … just sent facebook comments about things that “light me up”, then found my way to “Leave Your Light On”.
The second blog I’ve saved in as many days. Thank you to Laurie Foley for leading me your way. You light me up!
duct tape
duct taped
wanted experienced duct taper to secure spinning light lighthouse whoosh whoosh whoosh
i’m reaching for my light switch
…thanks for a bit of nurture in your wrapping around me words.
.-= Marie´s last blog ..This Is How I Wave! SUP! =-.
I had a hint of what switch to turn on years ago because of a certain talent that (I’ve been told I have), and I wiggled the switch a few times but never turned it on all the way! Ken, you’ve given me hope. I’m so glad you found your switch and that you’re sharing the outpour with so many people.
My daily routine includes sitting down around 5:00, pouring a glass of healthy red wine, and reading through my RSS feeds from a variety of blogs. Yours is about halfway down the list but I have started to skip over it until I’ve read the rest. Now don’t get huffy – that is because I have found that, once I read yours, I want my mind to roll around it for awhile as I cook and eat dinner. A light switch in my soul – mine turns on the music – thanks for telling me to duct tape it on. That’s an image that will keep me searching for a place to make music again.
This post is good timing for me, as I’m just re-reading David Whyte’s book on how he learned to turn the light on (and keep it on) as a “corporate poet.” It’s called “Crossing the Unknown Sea: Work and the Shaping of Identity.” Here’s a tidbit he includes, an excerpt from T.S. Eliot’s “Four Quartets”:
Not known, because not looked for
But heard, half heard, in the stillness
Between two waves of the sea.
Quick now, here, now, always –
A condition of complete simplicity
(Costing not less than everything)…
.-= Jana Norman´s last blog ..The world’s worst waiter =-.
That’s great! I love your writing! I can’t seem to keep my switch on. I’ll think about how to work on this. Thanks so much for putting my thoughts into words!!!
.-= Michele´s last blog ..Love, Honor and Cherish =-.