Shine your light

We all look for signs. What is our role? Should we act or observe? Do we have purpose or is what we believe to be purpose simply ego wearing the mask of good intention?

It is time to get over ourselves. Our world strains under the weight of a challenge that weakens our collective will to endure. We may be afraid. We may be pridefully optimistic. We may even feel paralyzed.

We must be. We must act, in ways small and large. We must help each other.

Over the past week, I have found my emotions swinging like the weight at the end of a large pendulum. I engage in community, sensing and responding to opportunity to catalyze collaboration; that makes me feel sound, part of the flow of humanity. I nudge and prod systems and leaders to embrace common planning, to look ahead at where the stresses on our collective structures will be instead of where they may be now; that makes me feel unstable, uncertain, a voice perhaps out of tune with others.

And yet there is no conductor for the current concert. So many are playing in tune but not in harmony. I hear no unifying melody. It seems that others cannot hear one either.

So what can I do, one single and rather simple soul? When should my voice sing and when should it be silent?

I read two beautiful quotes this morning, when trying to be without thought. Obviously, my mind is unable to settle my eyes as they seek insight during the crisis we have named COVID-19. While the mind sought brief respite in thoughtlessness, the senses found the following:

“Everything exposed by the light becomes visible, for everything that becomes visible is light.” (Ephesians, 5: 13)

“The best way out is always through.” (Robert Frost)

Each quote feels relevant. In fact, they seem complementary. This is all about light and vision. It is about seeing a way forward. For the only way to arrive is to travel. And the only way to travel is as light.

You – each and every one – are embodiments of light. Of good. Of cooperative and collective purpose. “Who am I to engage, to help, to contribute?” you may ask. That is not the question. What am I when I do not? Consider that question instead. When I am stationary, when I am alone, when I am afraid to offer who I am to the common enterprise of where we all may go – I am darkness. When I worry excessively about purpose versus ego, I am ego obstructing purpose, inertia pulling “in” rather than momentum moving “out”, “through”.

There are heroes in our midst. You are such heroes. Every day I see, feel, and grow in the glow of your light, your courage, your commitment to helping humanity and our world be better. So many of your engagements, be they quiet words of comfort or clarion calls for collaborative change, are meaningful and inspiring. Your prayers, your ideas, your actions small and large – they are inspiring. They help things become visible. They help the visible become light. They help us see our path through.

Keep shining your light.