“Be the light.”
Dan and I see those words every morning on our bathroom mirror.
Earlier this year, our pastor, Dana Hendershot, gave us this little sticker after a sermon reflecting on Jesus’ words in Matthew 5:14: “You are the light of the world.” She encouraged us to put it somewhere we would see it often.
So, we did.
These three words have become more than a Bible verse for us. They’re a challenge and a reminder of the kind of people we hope to be, and the kind of light we hope to bring into a world that can sometimes feel overwhelmed by negativity, division, and darkness.
Today, as so many people continue to mourn the loss of Dolly Parton, I can’t help but think of her and the light she brought into this world.
I didn’t grow up listening to country music, but Dolly somehow transcended all of that.
Of course, I knew many of her songs. How could you not recognize that unmistakable voice and the catchy melodies of 9 to 5 and Jolene?
But I also loved her movies, her humor, and the warmth she brought to the screen. For years, I’ve told Dan that HE HAS to sit down and watch Steel Magnolias with me.
Even though we’ve been together for 24 years, including 21 of those as a married couple, that still hasn’t happened.
I’m pretty confident a movie night is in our near future. 😉
And that was the thing about Dolly. You didn’t have to grow up listening to country music to appreciate her. Her light reached far beyond a song, a movie, an amusement park, or a stage.
She entertained us. She gave generously. She helped put books into the hands of millions of children.
Perhaps most importantly, she seemed to have this remarkable ability to make people feel seen.
That’s why saying we’ve “lost” Dolly doesn’t feel quite right.
People like Dolly don’t really leave us. They leave behind songs and movies, stories and laughter, generosity and an example of what it looks like to use the gifts you’ve been given to make someone else’s life a little brighter.
Most of us will never have Dolly’s fame or her remarkable ability to bring millions of people together through a song.
But we all have something.
For Dan and me, we have a story.
Our story is about living with Multiple Sclerosis. It is about caregiving, accessibility, frustration, faith, love, laughter, and all the messy spaces in between.
We keep telling it because somewhere out there, someone needs to know they are not alone.
Someone who is coping with an MS diagnosis, or is learning to be a caregiver, is feeling invisible because of a disability, or is wondering whether a life changed by illness can still be filled with joy and purpose.
It can.
Dolly showed us what can happen when we use what we’ve been given to brighten the little corner of the world where we happen to live.
She just happened to brighten a whole lot of corners.
Dan and I hope to brighten ours through our experiences as a married couple who both live with MS, one story at a time.
And tomorrow morning, just like every morning, we’ll see those three words on our bathroom mirror:
“Be the light.”
Maybe that’s part of what Dolly leaves with us all.
A reminder that whatever gifts we have, whatever story we have to tell, and wherever our little corner of the world happens to be, we can use our gifts to make life a little brighter for someone else.
Keep shining.