If you want to be of use in the world, be a lighthouse.
Stand firm, whole, solid and shine your light, so that those in need can find their way home.
Don’t be a lifeboat, rushing out towards those in trouble, but finding yourself now also in danger. Tired, exhausted and seeking to pick people up and put them into your boat. Learning to sail one’s own boat well is the purpose of every life.
Don’t be the sea: look now, how I am drowning too.
Don’t clamber into their boat, weighing them down with your ideas of what you would do in their situation, and submerging them with your feelings about what they are going through.
No, be a lighthouse: calm, unassailable and ever-present. Guiding folks away from danger and home to their own unique sense of safety. Trusting people to find their own way. Knowing that experiencing the storms of life builds strength and resilience in every human.
Soon enough, you too will have to navigate the dark waves of life with courage and with faith. Then you yourself will seek that one true beacon, glowing in the darkness.
Sarah x