Lights make life better

To The Eagle:

In this Christmas season, the decoration lights beam out over so many dark places in our area. It’s dark earlier and there aren’t many street lights, certainly not out where I live in Grays River. But the lights that are here come from homes where families are celebrating the holidays with house lights that guide us home, sometimes quite literally. When there’s rain water covering the fog lines at the side of the road, or fog that makes distances confusing, or snow that brings a different kind of shadow, it can be harder to see what’s ahead when driving home in the dark. I remember how Gloria Clark’s decoration lights used to welcome me home as I came down KM into the valley at night. I miss her and her lights, too.

As the holidays wind down and those decoration lights are suddenly gone, there comes a sense of loss to many of us as we feel more isolated and even sad. January 1st is sometimes a sad day for me as so many of my neighbors who do put up lights, take them down that day.

My request is to everyone everywhere. Please leave your outside decoration lights on for a few extra days or for whatever time works for you and your family. There’s a reminder in those lights that God sent us the light of the world in the dark so we could see the light from the star meant to guide our lives and live in hope. No matter what you believe about that, I hope everyone will agree lights make life better. Please leave your lights up a bit longer for the sake of your neighbors and the whole community. And maybe in the coming winter darkness, we will begin to look to the star above for our guidance. May God’s peace cover all of us in Wahkiakum County in the coming year.

Karen Bertroch

Grays River