Out in Stanwood, Washington a small group of Orthodox Christian nuns creates beeswax candles, each carefully hand-poured or dipped. Their enterprise began with the production of paraffin candles, the most common type found these days. The toxic fumes from the paraffin, a petroleum by-product, forced them to consider an alternative and beeswax was the natural replacement. The sisters spent six months searching for the right cotton wick to create a votive candle that can burn for 18 hours. And they discovered that beeswax actually cleans the air instead of polluting it and is often recommended for people with allergies and asthma. I can see the residue on the surfaces near where we burned paraffin candles during our power outage and am considering switching to beeswax and soy candles. Quiet Light Candles, run by the four nuns and two volunteers, has a store that is open on Saturdays and online shopping (they use Paypal!).