Our Light

Each of us is a Light. Each of us is very bright. Just look at the brightness that shines through the eyes of a newborn or a small child as it explores and searches for the light outside of itself. The light inside and the light outside come together and radiates the entire room, no matter how poor or wealthy the environment around might be.

I love watching the shining presence beam forth from the eyes of little ones and even kindergarteners. It seems to continue until kids get to be about 8, 9 or 10. Human beings are always, from the start, curious and inquisitive. We are constantly searching for what is proper. When I show my grandson (3 years old) how to open a toy to replace the new battery, Hugo wants to do it. He not only wants to do it once. He does it over and over and over and over and over and over again.

When I feel patient, I watch this learning process unfold before me. When I have the desire to move onto something else or to play something else, I feel frustrated and annoyed and begin to push Hugo in the direction that I prefer.

It is amazing how at that moment, he also gets frustrated. Irritable. Non-compliant. And begins to act out against me and even against the toy. He throws it to the ground and yells at the world! Sometimes that tantrum breaks the toy and then I really feel angry with him. I start to “teach” him to not get angry and throw things, when all he wanted to do was learn to do what I had shown him. My “teaching” encourages him to think differently towards me—“Papa is not a teacher, but a disciplinarian.” “I don’t like this Papa.”

So, what happens to that light in each of us as we “grow up”? As we learn to follow the outside, socially acceptable desire of the adult world? Do we begin to realize, as my father always said, “Don’t do what I do; do what I say.” And begin see ourselves as not very bright, not light-giving people, but people who make mistakes and cause others to “have to teach” us what to do.

Did you ever wonder what would happen if we all really learned that we were a light? That we were bright?