I want you to close your eyes and listen to what I say. It is dark, cold. You can’t see a thing in the dreary, fog-ridden night. There is no glow to light your way, there is no stranger you can grab hold of and beg to lead you to safety. All that’s there is you. But that’s normal and you’re not afraid, ‘cause it’s always been just you.

Then, in the distance, you can hear someone breathing in quiet tones, their excited whispers seeming to charge the air. This is different, you think, moving slowly at first towards where you could’ve sworn you’d heard something. But now you’re not so sure. Whoever was whispering has stopped, and in the black fog you can hear them struggling.

Whether by instinct, or by higher moral quality, you find your slow movement quickening, the saunter you’d held suddenly a brisk jog, and as you get closer, a full sprint to where this person wrestles with something. But why don’t they call for your help?

All at once, the black turns to white. Your eyes pinch shut without your having told them to, but even that’s not enough to keep it out. It hurts, but at the same time, you want more. There’s a wind coming from down and in front of you, almost strong enough to blow you over, but you manage to keep your ground as the air changes around you.

What was cold now radiates with warmth, like the pleasant surprise of letting your hand land in the warmth of the sunlight. It’s invigorating, but then at the same time frightening. I’ve never felt this before, the thought passes your mind and leaves quickly, taking any apprehension with it and leaving nothing but excitement in its wake.

After a moment, your eyes open a bit, letting just enough light in to see the world around you. But...nothing’s changed. It’s still...dark. Why? Why is it still so dark? Daring to open your eyes further reveals the truth—that horrible darkness is still there, and yet coming from beneath you is a hot, bright glow – you almost dare not look down for fear of losing this newfound sight. Yet you must.

There, seated on the ground is a child, and his arms are wrapped about a large copper jar, whose top has since been removed. You see his smile, and yet he seems enthralled with the jar, and rightly so. A white so bright and so pure and so good and holy shines out of the thing, filling it completely and radiating out with brilliant intensity in a constant stream of beauty.

“So this was it,” you say, mystified by the glory you’ve never before witnessed.

“You want it?” he asks, looking up at you with a big, broad grin.

“Yeah,” you reply, not realizing just what had happened. He stands to his feet, and with great effort lifts the jar high enough for you to pick it up. You take it, still fully absorbed with what you’re seeing, still too completely taken in by its magnificence to hear his innocent giggle. His run echoes across the ground until it’s disappeared into the night beyond, and only then do you look up.

This darkness is unbearable! How can anyone live in it?! You ask yourself, only to remember moments later that this very darkness is where you had been not minutes before.

In the distance, you can see another light appear, just as bright as yours is- wait? Yours? Looking down—it’s gone! The jar is gone! What happened to that light?! That warmth?!

“It’s inside you now,” the boy says, and you see him standing in front of you.

“What do you mean?!” you ask, frantically, “Where’s the light?!” He only giggles again.

“Follow me, and do what I do. It’ll get easier, I promise!” And he starts running again into the darkness, before stopping for a moment.

“Come on!” Without another word you’re off after him, and not a moment later he’s found another jar, only this one is closed.

“Here,” he says, picking it up with ease, “open it!” There’s no latch to speak of, no seam you can fit your hands into, nothing to twist and turn and pull off. Wrestling with it, you end up on the floor before *POP* off goes the lid. Once again, the rush of warmth, the wind, and the light that you’d experienced before are all back. You feel younger, stronger, more full of life and energy, and you hear someone walk up beside you.

“What is this light?” he asks, and you can’t help but smile.

“You want it?”

“Yeah,” he says absently, and you give it to him, and can’t help but giggle.