The Lights

An excerpt from a now deleted blog post from Juliana on her official site in 2008:

In “The Lights” I was feeling really really down so I went to the little beach at the bay, late at night, to look out over the water and up into the sky to try to find some solace. There was a bright moon glowing, shining on the water. It was a mostly clear night with a few slowly drifting clouds backlit by the moon.

There were lights in houses off in the distance across the bay. There were stars. There was the occasional silent blast of heat lightning far away. I don’t remember if the “roman candle” really happened, somewhere off across the bay on the other beach over there, or if I made it up to add to my list of “light” things in the song.

The night seemed, suddenly, so alive. There was so much light, so many kinds of light, such illumination in the dark, such brightness, coming from so many places. I imagine that if I had walked into the water there would have been phosphorescence making ghostly neon white trails swirl around my feet. It was like a secret world, with a special kind of vibrating, metaphysical more-awake-than-daytime energy that apparently came to life only when people were tucked away sleeping in their houses, and so I was a privileged witness to it. All the lights made me feel protected and warm and comforted, like I wasn’t alone, surrounded by them. Like the beach and everything within my sight and the land off across the water, curving around the bay, was my home, and the sky was the protective ceiling. Like this world loved me. I was overwhelmed by the beautiful heartbreakingness of it.