You are the Light

 

 "You are the light of the world.

  A city on a hill cannot be hidden.  
Neither do people light a lamp 

and put it under a bowl. 
Instead they put it on its stand, 

and it gives light to everyone in the house. 

In the same way, 
let your light shine before people." 
(Matt. 5:14-15)

The winter rain streaked across the car windshield, making the long drive on Route 5 from Seattle to Portland a bit more challenging than usual.  The long, lonely road, peered around the large mountain range looming to the east, which cast a heavy foreboding to the dark night. There were few homes or towns along the long stretch south of Seattle and the only light was a sparse sprinkling of stars in the night sky.  It was peaceful, beautiful in a kind of desolated way.  

I loved the long drive because it insisted on a kind of communion with the dark and the silence, directing me inward to my own thoughts.  Usually my thoughts could compete for my attention, like rivling youngsters,  clamoring guests, until finally giving way to a deeper realm, a greater quiet which held me close for the rest of the drive, leading me deeper into an even greater peace and inner presence.

Then, almost suddenly, the road began its descent out of Vancouver, Washington, over the old railroad bridge, crossing the Columbia River slicing the two states, and into Oregon. The road rose up to a point which looked over Portland, which lay glittering magically on the hills ahead. 

The entire scene was a radiant light display, sparkling as if a huge fireworks had landed on the hills on which the city spread out. It was spectacular.  It was the light at the end of a long drive. I always found it to be a joyous welcoming back and a gorgeous metaphor for life itself.

While we may linger in periods of darkness from time to time in our lives, often even steeped in fearful thoughts, looming periods of adversity, along lonely roads which seem to stretch out endlessly like an abandoned country road, it seems our lives spiral through these dark times, eventually rising up into higher levels until reaching a vista point, where light seems to sparkle everywhere, magically, reminding us that we need the dark to truly appreciate the light.  We also need the dark as a kind of contrast for the light. Light isn't visible in the light, only cast against something else.

As I continued onto another road which swept around the city, I realized that each light that I saw was someone's home, representative of each person's own light.  Together they lit up the night. Blending, yet separate, they sparkled across the cityscape.

We are the light of the world on so many more levels than a nighttime cityscape.  Each time you enter a room, you bring your energy into it, you either lighten it or darken it, depending on your level of awareness and intentionality.  I read recently that we are in the room to "heal" the room.  We are here, to heal the world,  and we heal it by our light, our decision to be light and to bring it into every place and situation we enter.  This awareness asks us to be intentional about our very selves.  

Carelessly, we have for too long, just been slaves to whatever random thought would cross our own inner being.  Unaware, we were sponges for other's negativity or anxious striving.  Now, the light is on in our inner awareness. We can watch the darker, heavier thoughts, float across our minds, like clouds, but remember that we are not those clouds, as Eckhart Tolle points out. Rather, we are the sky, the endless expanse of consciousness that can decide not to be a rainstorm and reach for the light of consciousness.  We can raise the light vibration in any room we enter by simply realizing this, remembering this, and choosing to smile at the crabby person next to us, nodding kindly and even whispering an inner prayer for that person's day.  

Most of us are not fully aware of this power, this incredible awesome power to choose what we will think about. Will we choose light or darkness, will we choose despair or hope, will we choose love or envy, hatred, cruelty?  

The light on the hill, which brightens the whole world, is born in a second, in that one single choice we make and we can make that choice for light, life, love, peace, joy in every breath we take.  We can build our moments in quanta seconds, until we have established a new habit of thinking.  We can do this.  I know we can all do this.  

As we choose to do this, we will raise our own inner energy up out of the basement of darkness in which we've lived for too long steeped in gloomy unconsciousness and ignorance.  Peace is always a decision.  Love is always a decision and joy is the gift we receive when we enter the light and choose consciousness over blindness.

Remember who you are, my friend.  You are a precious, greatly beloved being of inestimable value, of incredible depth and power.  All you have to do is just turn on the light and you will see that we, all together, are the light on a hill casting the entire world aglow.


For pictures of Oregon, please see this awesome website:   
www.oregonscenics.com/Stock%20photos.htm