2025.01.26 A Story For All Seasons, Lyn G. Brakeman, Spiritual Lemons, blog post

This story was originally told back in the 1970s by the Very Rev. Francis Sayers, one-time Dean of Washington National Cathedral. It was dusk, and the last tour of the day was winding down. The Dean was waiting to lock up when he spotted this scene.

A small girl, maybe six or so, bored with the drone of the tour guide conducting the last tour of the day, became fascinated by the light reflected from the round Rose Window at the West end onto the floor below. It represented Creation/The Beginning.   

The child glanced back a few times to make sure her mother wasn’t looking and had not yet spotted her straying. Not yet. She kept walking towards the light. When she reached the edge of its circumference, she looked up at the window and down at the light’s reflection. She stood there simply gazing, her small head bobbing up and down. Finally, she put one toe into the light and drew it back quickly. Several times she checked the light’s omnipresence. At last, encouraged, she stepped into the circle of light on the floor. Still checking its presence above her, she began to move about, cautiously at first then with confidence.    

It was then that mama realized her child was not at her side. She began her own frantic search for her child whom she spotted far away. Mama began the journey, first running then slowing to a walk, then faster again, all the way down the long aisle. The dean, still in the shadows, watched intently as this mother reached her goal then stopped, entranced by the sight of her small daughter moving safely and gracefully about. The child, uninterrupted, looked up at her mother and said:  “Look mommy. Look! I’m dancing with the light. I’m dancing with the light”  

With the light.