Like the proverbial candle in the dark, a light can be tiny, flickering, unscented. It just needs to be for us.

It's easy to recognize how much we want the light left on for us; the difficult part seems to be remembering to leave the light on for others and how much it means to them also. And one little light can beckon many people.

I feel myself once again feeling the need
to leave the back porch light on for you.

I remember one Christmas when my neighbor Anne Roach commented on how happy it made her mother, visiting for the holidays, to look out the window in the night and see our lights on. A simple pleasure, but real.

There are ways to keep a light on that involve just a smile, a kind word, even a nod. When we acknowledge one another, there is an energy that transmits the equivalent of keeping a light on. It takes no money, so little time and almost no energy. It takes a warm heart and a willing soul.

Some people have a mother to keep a light on, others have many friends. There are some, however, who have only you or me. We will both need to pay attention. When we become the light, it shines both ways.

Jean Loxley-Barnard has been a writer all her life and studied both sociology and psychology at George Washington University where she earned a B.A. Her company, The Shopper, Inc., encompasses all the Loxley-Barnard family publications - The Shopper Magazines and Doctor to Doctor Magazine. She has been in the advertising, consulting and publishing business for 39 years.