About Us
Hello! I am so happy you are here to add a little (candle) light to your life!
I started my candle business a few years ago after a difficult time in my life and moved to a home in the woods for solace. To occupy my mind, I immersed myself in learning something I knew nothing about, something creative and useful I could make with my hands that transported my mind and lightened my darkness. The candle making process helped to ease my mind, and the woods and flowers and wildlife that surrounded me provided endless inspiration.
This helped me begin a journey of change, simplicity, being kinder to myself and prioritizing my health and well being. Of taking whatever bitter I needed to leave behind me and transforming my life into something sweet. People have used candles for hundreds of years to light their way. Making candles was my way of lighting mine. I wanted to share that light, warmth, and peace I found with others.
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The following excerpt from the book Bittersweet by Shauna Niequist is one of my favorites:
"The idea of bittersweet is changing the way I live, unraveling and re-weaving the way I understand life. Bittersweet is the idea that in all things there is both something broken and something beautiful, that there is a moment of lightness on even the darkest of nights, a shadow of hope in every heartbreak, and that rejoicing is no less rich even when it contains a splinter of sadness.
It's the practice of believing that we really do need both the bitter and the sweet, and that a life of nothing but sweetness rots both your teeth and your soul. Bitter is what makes us strong, what forces us to push through, what helps us earn the lines on our faces and the calluses on our hands. Sweet is nice enough, but bittersweet is beautiful, nuanced, full of depth and complexity. Bittersweet is courageous, gutsy, audacious, earthy.
This is what I've come to believe about change: it's good, in the way that childbirth is good, and heartbreak is good, and failure is good. By that I mean that it's incredibly painful, exponentially more so if you fight it, and also that it has the potential to open you up, to open life up, to deliver you right into the palm of God's hand, which is where you wanted to be all along, except that you were too busy pushing and pulling your life into exactly what you thought it should be.
I've learned the hard way that change is one of God's greatest gifts, and most useful tools. Change can push us, pull us, rebuke and remake us. It can show us who we've become, in the worst ways, and also in the best ways. I've learned that it's not something to run away from, as though we could, and that in many cases, change is a function of God's graciousness, not life's cruelty.
This is the work I'm doing now, and the work I invite you into:
When life is sweet, say thank you, and celebrate. And when life is bitter, say thank you, and grow."
We hope you enjoy Bittersweet candles as much as we enjoy creating them and infusing them with light and warmth for you, from our hearts to your homes.
Cheers,
Jennifer Jane, owner/creator/designer
Bittersweet Candle Co