The Lighthouse Keeper

On a rocky coast where storms were common, there lived a lighthouse keeper. Every evening, she climbed the spiral stairs and lit the great lamp.

Sailors miles out at sea would see the warm beam cutting through fog and darkness. They would adjust their course, find the channel, and reach harbor safely.

The keeper had never met most of the sailors she saved. She did not need their thanks. The light was not about her. It was about the beam, steady and constant, a reference point in confusion.

One stormy night, a young sailor asked her: "How do you stay so calm in these terrible storms?"

She smiled. "I do not fight the storm. That is the sea's business. I simply keep my light burning. That is mine."

Each of us carries a light. Meditation is how we tend it, keep it burning through our own storms so that others might find their way through theirs.

What is your light? What practice keeps it burning?