This Little Light of Mine

Lighting the World

“Ours is not the task of fixing the entire world all at once, but of stretching out to mend the part of the world that is within our reach.  One of the most calming and powerful actions you can do to intervene in a stormy world is to stand up and show your soul…  Struggling souls catch the light from other souls who are fully lit and willing to show it…”

                                                                                    Clarissa Pinkola Estes

“It is every man’s obligation to put back into the world at least the equivalent of what he takes out of it.”

                                                                                    Albert Einstein

            I have been glued to the news coming out of the Middle East and Africa.  Everyday it seems another country becomes a hotbed of change.  People by the thousands are in the streets crying for freedom and revolution.  I watch in awe of their determination and courage and cringe when guns are turned on them and bodies begin to fall.  I think of Gandhi who said, “What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans, and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought in the name of totalitarianism, or the holy name of liberty or democracy?”  I fear for them.  I pray for them.  I feel helpless in the face of it. 

            Feeling helpless in the midst of turmoil is certainly not new.  We have only to think of our own history to realize that change of any kind brings upheaval and unrest.  Change on the personal level is just as unsettling as change on the global level.  Yet change is the constant in all life that is growing.  So what is our role in all this?  What can one small human on a continent a world away do to help?  We can stand in the light of our souls, both our individual souls and our collective souls and shine like signal fires in the darkness.  We can pray for them, hold them in our hearts and send them positive energy.  We can communicate our encouragement, our concern and our respect.

            So long as there are oppressed people anywhere in our world there will never be peace, but that should not keep us from striving for it.  We may feel like ‘one snowflake in an avalanche’ but everyone is important to the whole.  Have courage today.  Let your light shine.

                                                                        In the spirit,

                                                                        Jane