Did you instinctually read that like you’re singing it? That’s definitely how I wrote it. “This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine.” That’s definitely how I wrote it.
I remember being at maybe vacation bible school when I was around 10 or so and singing this song. It felt good then and it feels good now. I feel like I was today years old though when I just learned that it was part of the civil rights movement. The Freedom Singers would belt it out to to steady their nerves during protests in the 1960s as the police were threatening them with violence.
It’s a song that is empowering by the way it validates the singer’s inherent worth and that they have all the reason to exist in the world. So simple. Like a pray. Sometimes I think the best songs are that way. Just so incredibly simple and perfect that they just become a mantra of sorts, or in the case of this song an actual mantra.
Right now it feels like little 10 year old me is trying to rattle 43 year old me into remembering how importantly it is for me to shine my light. And maybe she’s reminding me so that I can remind you. Maybe all this work going to therapy and taking better care of myself, and healing and growing is really all about getting the courage to shine my light again.