Everything
Candles: Coming Home

by Augusta Wilson

The late December afternoon loomed cold and gray, with a cruel easterly wind. I dumped my suitcases on the icy pavement outside the door to my small apartment, where I lived alone and searched for my keys.  I opened my front door with a sigh, dreading the frigid, uninviting apartment.  I let my eyes adjust to the gloominess of the apartment and reached for the light switch, on the living room
wall.  ‘Hmm…’ I thought to myself, ‘I always leave a light on …’   I flicked the switch a few more times.  Oh no… The ice storm the night before must have knocked down some power lines, somewhere.  I had overheard an elderly couple talking about it at the airport, while I waited for my taxi. Upstate New York is well known for its severe, wintry weather.

 I nervously entered the apartment, half expecting someone to jump out at me from behind the front door. 

I felt my way to the couch and sat down.  Some homecoming, I thought miserably.  I had just driven two hours from the airport in the sleet.  My best friend, Sara, and I had decided to splurge and treat ourselves to a package trip to Cancun and Cozumel, Mexico.  We were both suffering from the winter blues.  Sara had just gone through a messy divorce, and wanted to get away.  I was just feeling blah.  We had had a colder than usual winter so far, with record low temperatures; I had been under a lot of stress at my job at the library and I needed to recharge my batteries.

But I couldn’t believe that I had to come home to this.  The shock of the biting, freezing temperature, in contrast to the warm, tropical sunshine of just six hours ago was enough; but to come home to a cold flat with no electricity, during the middle of a Syracuse winter, was just too much. 

Now what?  I was cold and hungry; I had no heat, but thank goodness for gas water heaters.  I could at least take a hot bath.  I was feeling grubby from the flight and desperately wanted to take a bath.

By now, the sun had set and the apartment was completely dark.  I shuddered and made my way to through the darkness to the kitchen.  I went instinctively to my junk drawer, which was located to the right of the stove, and rummaged through the graveyard of blunt knives, lonely paper clips and orphaned batteries, to find a flashlight, which I kept there for emergencies.  I switched it on and shone the sleepy amber light around the flat.  It started to fade; I had to find some fresh batteries quickly.  But I didn’t have any, and the thought of spending the coming hours in complete darkness didn’t exactly cheer me up.

Then I remembered something.  I had treated myself to several Lime Cilantro SoyLuscious ® soy candles from the Candles from Eden website, about a week or two before my holiday.  I ran into the living room and felt around the end table…  There they were!  I took them into the cold and dark bathroom and placed them around the bath tub.  I filled the tub with soothing hot water then I lit the candles and a warm glow filled the room.  The tiny flames wavered in the chilly air but grew to a bright light.  I smiled to myself and inhaled the exotic lime scent, which was laced with the cheerful fragrance of cilantro as I got into the relaxing warm water.  That was more like it!  I sat back, closed my eyes, and thought of the warm, white sandy beach on which I had walked only a day before. 

I was home.

*View Candles of Eden'sSoyLuscious®Soy Candles.

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