Guided By Your Own Light

I’m sure I knew not to shine the flashlight into my eyes. But somehow I ended up doing it anyways.

Black Friday Weekend and I find myself meandering through the aisle of Lowe’s. I wasn’t actually looking for a new flashlight, but a deal is a deal so I stopped to check them out. Apparently the brightness of light is measured in something called lumens, and having no concept of what a lumen looked like I turned the flashlight a bit too high and ended up temporarily blinding myself in the process.

Now I know what a lumen is.

The lumens grew even brighter as I adjusted the flashlight’s beam width from wide to narrow, decreasing the size of the illuminated circle while intensifying its glow.

I’ve found myself doing the same thing in my life, adjusting the width of my focus from wide to narrow, decreasing the size of my own circle while intensifying the glow on what really matters.

I guess at some point if you keep working at it, life finally gets clearer. Purpose meets intention and that’s where all the energy unapologetically starts to go. The circle gets smaller but the light within shines brighter.

Perhaps the years of meandering and introspection actually have their purpose after all. Perhaps getting lost is a necessary component on the unmarked path of finding yourself. The darkness endured makes you appreciate the light you’ve been seeking for so long. 

Time isn’t waiting for me to figure out what to do with it. It’s moving, faster than I’d like it to, creating both urgency and patience, an urgency in that I know not to waste it, a patience in trusting the timing of my continuing evolution. 

Others need not understand the journey, but it’s really not for them to understand it. It’s for me to live it. Fully. With or without their support, approval, or understanding.

We each have a purpose, a voice, a calling, intentionally embedded within us to discover, develop, and to offer to the world. We are the only ones who can shine the light which shines within us.

Maybe we just need to adjust our focus.

Photo by Josh Hild on Unsplash