Finding Sparkle in the Dark
Creativity, cancer, faith & becoming.
My name is Shakila B., and somewhere along the way, sparkle became about much more than things that shine.
Cancer is part of my story.
For a long time, I wasn’t entirely sure how much of that story belonged here.
The Sparkle Company began as a creative business, and there can sometimes be an unspoken expectation that business websites should keep the complicated parts of life tucked neatly away.
But my life and my creativity have never existed separately.
What I have lived through has influenced the woman I am, the way I create, the things I value, the way I understand time, and the meaning I now attach to beauty.
So I have decided not to separate the artist from the journey that shaped her.
There have been seasons of creating while celebrating incredible opportunities, seasons of creating while waiting, seasons of creating while afraid, and seasons when simply allowing myself to imagine something beautiful felt like an act of faith.
Through all of them, creativity remained.
Sometimes it looked like thousands of tiny crystals placed carefully by hand.
Sometimes it looked like building miniature rooms and imagining an entire world.
Sometimes it was sewing a tiny outfit, writing down what God was teaching me, photographing something beautiful, or allowing myself to dream about what might still be possible.
The form changed.
The need to create did not.
And perhaps that is what sparkle means to me now.
Not pretending darkness doesn't exist.
But discovering that light can exist there too.
My story is still being written. I don't have every answer, and I don't need to package an unfinished journey into a perfect conclusion.
I simply want to tell it truthfully.
My faith, my family, cancer, creativity, joy, disappointment, imagination, hope, and the strange beautiful worlds I continue building are all chapters of the same life.
This space is where I intend to share them.
One story.
One idea.
One crystal at a time.
— Shakila B.