From Light Blue to Navy.

I was at work one day cleaning some dishes. I’m not too sure why this idea came to me at that specific moment, but I thought about the idea of not using the lights in my home.

I spoke with my partner about this idea of mine and if she would be cool with it. I’m lucky to have her as she doesn’t just let me try out some of my ideas, she joins in with me. So we did it together.

One week, no lights in the house. If it gets dark we will use candles. I suggested one week because the first few days might be frustrating but through this frustration we will persevere and begin to adapt. Which is exactly what happened.

The first night we lit a load of candles. We placed them in different parts of our home. I bought a pack of 50 tea lights and used about 20 of them. It didn’t take long to realise this was a fire hazard.

The next day we used two.
It was extremely dark but we persevered.
It made me realise a few things.

1. How much I take light for granted.
2. How little of my other senses I use.
3. Now we had no light in our home, everything outside was still prominent. Just like seeing clouds in the day, I would now see stars out the window at night. I was aware of the change.

Cooking was a challenge and so was doing the dishes. But being in candle light creates a very relaxing atmosphere. It made my home feel gentle, which in return created a contemplative mood.

With my partner, the evening became romantic.
By myself, it became existential.

Having no light also revealed other things I never thought about. I was used to habits such as reading a book in the evening, but now it was impossible. I would have to wait until daylight.

By day three I started to wake up with a different mindset. Now my home was lit by the sun, I was excited to get the things I couldn’t do at night done. Suddenly my days became productive. They had a purpose to them. I cannot sit in bed for an hour because that’s an hour of daylight gone. It felt like some kind of sacrilege to light.

I started to see why our ancients would worship the sun. It’s incredible. This ball in the sky that has the power to light up our world. I stopped thinking about the weather outside, it could be clear or overcast, either way I had light.

Around the 4th to 5th night I started to find myself turning on the candles later. My eyes were adapting. I was getting used to the dark. In fact on a few occasions I didn’t bother with any candles. I was beginning to use my other senses and find new things to do.

Which led me to an evening where I decided to just sit and watch the sky go from a sunset until the stars would appear. I was curious to what point I would see the first star.

After sitting there for about 20 minutes the thought about giving up crept in. It was taking so long for the sky to darken. But I decided to persevere and kept on watching. What have I got to lose other than one evening of my life that could be easily lost to watching something on my projector. So I continued.

I noticed that the sky changes ever so gradually. It’s almost so slow that it’s hard to even realise that it’s changing.

This made me think about the lights. About the modern world. The digital world we co-exist with. How it is nothing like nature.

Everything in nature is gradual. Age, night to day, the seasons etc. Yet the artificial lights I used to use without even questioning it, are instant. Just like turning on a laptop or going on a phone. There is nothing gradual in the process.

I began to realise how at night no wonder I used to struggle to sleep. I would go from being wide awake on my laptop trying to make art or in a room with a light on reading, then shower, go into my bedroom with the light on, get in bed, turn the light off and somehow I was supposed to switch of with it? It doesn’t make any sense.

Then before this trail of thought could go any further, I spotted a star. By this point I was enjoying this peaceful notion of just me and the sky, watching it gradually melt away into darkness.

It was during this moment when the moon began to rise and it was a full moon. I don’t know why but as soon as I saw the moon I felt so ready to go to bed. It was like the cherry on the cake. Now that I’ve watched the final act of the day, it was time for me to act out the final part of mine. It was the first time I had gone to bed in a long time where I was ready for it. I was ready to melt away into my mattress like I witnessed that of the sky. In fact going to sleep wasn’t an act to perform, it was deeper. Something intrinsic, something natural. I followed sleep like it was a scent until I reached it. Surrendering myself to the darkness as it greeted me.

It’s now been 7 weeks and 3 days.
I haven’t stopped and I don’t think I will stop either.

The candles have changed a bit. Now it’s a combination of beeswax and olive oil to stay clear of toxins. But now my days consist of two.

The day and the night.
A time to act, and a time to reflect.

I like it. This simple change has already taught me a lot.
But most importantly of all is that things in life happen gradually and anything that contradicts this law I should probably treat with caution.