Be a Keeper of the Light

An excerpt from Little Detours and Spiritual Adventures

It’s time to glow up. The world needs your light.

Sometimes the world feels so full of darkness and despair, it can be overwhelming.

The war in Israel. The war in Ukraine. The poverty. The political division. The fake news. The deaths of dear family and friends. You almost hate to open the newspaper, turn on the TV news or sign on to Facebook.

There’s an old saying that it’s better to light one candle than to curse the darkness. That’s really all it takes is one candle, one light, to dispel the darkness.

What if you were the light?

Author Elizabeth Gilbert, who wrote Eat, Pray, Love challenged me with that question after I read her article about being stuck on a crosstown bus in New York City during rush hour. It was originally published in O, the Oprah Magazine, but I found it on Facebook.

She writes about an unpleasant bus trip through clogged traffic in Manhattan where everyone on the bus was cold, tired and grumpy. As the bus approached Seventh Avenue, the bus driver got on the intercom and announced to everyone on board:

“Folks, I know you’ve had a rough day and you’re frustrated. I can’t do anything about the weather or traffic, but here’s what I can do. As each one of you gets off the bus, I will reach out my hand to you. As you walk by, drop your troubles into the palm of my hand, okay? Don’t take your problems home to your families tonight—just leave ‘em with me. My route goes right by the Hudson River, and when I drive by there later, I’ll open the window and throw your troubles in the water. Sound good?"

Everyone burst out laughing. Was this guy for real?

Yep. At the next stop he opened his hand and waited.

Some of the passengers laughed and a few cried, but everyone dropped an invisible something into the palm of his hand. The bus driver did it at every stop, all the way to the river.

She wrote that the world is a difficult place to be in, that we all have bad days that can last a lot longer than a day – maybe for years. At some point in life, we all struggle and fail when it comes to work, finances, friends and faith, and of course, at relationships. “There are times when everything seems cloaked in darkness. You long for the light but don’t know where to find it,” she wrote.

Right there, pause. You can relate, right? We all can.

And here’s the part that felt like some Great Force lit a pilot light inside me:

“But what if you are the light? What if you’re the very agent of illumination that a dark situation begs for?” she wrote.

One year I visited lighthouses all along Lake Erie. We in Cleveland call it the North Coast. A sign at Marblehead Lighthouse honored the lighthouse keepers and called them The Keepers of the Light. I love those words.

That’s what we all are. Keepers of the Light. But so much gets in the way of us shining our light to help others. All our personal wants and desires for the future shut us off from enjoying what is right in front of us. All our fear of failing keeps us from shining what light we do have.

To glow up, you have to release those blocks that cut off the light. As I visited each lighthouse, I released one thing that blocked the light in me. I found a rock, paused, set an intention, named what I wanted to release and gave that rock a fling into the Great Lake in front of me. Splash!

I let go of productivity, of being too busy to be present. Here’s to choosing presence over productivity. Splash!

At another lighthouse, I tossed in FOMO - Fear Of Missing Out. No more feeling that where I’m at or what I’m doing and who I am isn’t enough. Splash!

I released what other people think I should be doing with my life and my time. Splash!

I un-shamed my life and set free all those “shoulds.” No more “shoulding” all over myself. Shame off me! Splash!

At the last lighthouse, I couldn’t find any rocks, just gravel nearby. Ah, all that gravel inside of me, the rough edges of resentments and regrets that block me from experiencing God’s perfect love for me and for you. Splash!

Once you clear the inside rubble, the Light can get out. Once you release all those blockages, the Light shines through you. Then you become a Keeper of the Light, a beacon of light for this world that so needs you to shine.

You don’t have to search for some grand mission in life. As writer Anne Lamott said, “Lighthouses don’t go running all over an island looking for boats to save; they just stand there shining.” Simply shine wherever you are, like the bus driver did. Or like my daughter did one average ordinary day heading home from the store.

After leaving the grocery store on a busy day rushing home to feed her three hungry kids, my daughter Gabrielle saw a woman kneeling on the ground weeping on a sidewalk behind the store. Was she sick? Was she hurt? Was it a scam? My daughter stopped and asked, “Are you okay?”

The woman told her she was fine. She wasn’t. She didn’t want to talk, but my daughter offered comfort in her words and by her presence. Gabrielle told her, “Whatever hard thing you’re going through, it will get better. We’ve all have days like this, but it will get better.” She stayed with the woman and promised her life would get better, no matter what she was experiencing.

She stayed until the woman stopped crying. She stayed until the woman was calm. She stayed until the woman got on her feet and said, “I’m going to be okay.” She stayed long enough to shine her light.

We’re all made of light. We’re all stardust. Shining our light never diminishes our light. It brightens the whole world around us. A dear friend once told me, the sun always has enough light to go around for everyone. Even on the cloudiest of days, it is still shining as bright as ever.

I love this poem by the Persian poet Hafiz:

Even after all this time, the Sun never says to the Earth, “You owe me.”

Look what happens with a love like that. It lights the whole sky.

Let’s collectively shine, especially when the world feels so dark. Ask yourself that one, burning question: What if you were the light?

Then shine.

Just shine.