Last weekend at the Jersey Shore I chased a lighthouse. Relying on childhood memories of distance, I convinced my boyfriend to bike ride the what I thought was two or three miles down Island Beach State Park with me. After an hour of going nowhere on my grandparent’s beach cruiser bikes, with no Barnaget Bay Lighthouse even in sight on the horizon, I acquiesced and called my parents to find out the actual distance of the lighthouse from where we were, which turned out to be something like 18 miles. Sunburnt and tired, we turned around and didn’t reach the lighthouse.
The idea of chasing a lighthouse is exciting to me, yet, from experience, it doesn’t always pay off. So, in thinking about lighthouses (and already planning on how I am going to drive and picnic at the Barnaget Bay lighthouse the next time I go to the Shore), I came across the above quotation: “Lighthouses don’t go running all over an island looking for boats to save; they just stand there shining.” And, so should we aspire to do the same in the way we live our lives.
Let your life be a shining light to others. A light of encouragement, a light of hope. You don’t have to look for others to help, instead, just be a lighthouse of life and you will help more than you could possibly imagine.
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