Turn on your inner Christmas light

W

HEN I think of Christmas, I always associate it with things that are brightly shining, glowing and glittering. Liwanag, kislap, kutitap.

The lighting of the four advent candles. The streets lighted at night. The brightly lit shopping and eating places. The blinking lights of the Christmas tree inside every home, and the native “parol” outside. Just thinking about it lights up my mood.

Years ago, I wrote a short play for a Christmas presentation intended for indigent children. It’s about this bunch of homeless street children who, during the Christmas holidays, get on jeepneys in pairs. While one beats rhythmically on a makeshift tin drum, his partner collects donations from passengers. On Christmas eve, while they are all happily gathered to share a simple noche buena, a beggar passes by and stops, perhaps lured by the smell of the food. He gets invited to join them. As the night gets darker, one of them wishes they had a candle. Then the guest beggar says not to worry. Suddenly, a bright glow emanates from inside everyone’s breast, until the whole place is brightened up by their collective interior lights. They then break out into a happy dance to the beat of their makeshift drums. Later, they realize that the mysterious invited guest is now gone.

That script I wrote was shelved and never saw light. But thinking about it, perhaps it was a crystallization of a feeling I’ve always had about making Christmas more meaningful by focusing on our inner light while enjoying the superficial lights of celebrating Christmas.

Albert Schweitzer once wrote: “There are times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us.”

Let us think of the people past and present who have given us the gift of the light of knowledge, understanding, and spirituality in our life.

But more importantly, let us be reminded of the candle inside us. As someone said: “There’s no such thing as the light at the end of the tunnel, you must realize that you are the light.” But as John Hagee tells us: “We are indeed the light of the world—but only if our switch is turned on.”

Some will try to dim your light. Don’t let the light go out. Protect it against the winds of anxiety, cynicism, indifference, hatred, prejudices, pride and greed. When you’re going through a rough time, it’s really important that you find the positive things to focus on because it’s easy to get sucked into the negativity of a situation that you’re in.

The measure of the light you carry is how you affect someone’s day or life, which according to Henry David Thoreau is the “highest of arts.”

So when you walk in the room, do faces light up? That’s what you should be striving for. The author Toni Morrison, once said in a show, “Does your face light up when you see children? Because that allows your face to speak how your heart feels.”

My wife, a former music teacher, was astonished to learn about the kind of impact she had on at least three of her pupils in the music subject she taught for a brief time. When she got to meet them once again after many years, they told her how her teaching have awakened their hidden natural talent and a lifelong love of music. As Henry Adams said, “a teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.”

I too have three persons who are not too ashamed to admit how our friendship has not only affected them but also changed their outlook in life. Drawing from my experiences I am only too happy to share the habits I have acquired and the earned wisdom I now have.

You may have been dependent on others for being loved, being helped, being consoled, being cared. You thought that you always needed other people to guide you. Now it’s time to turn on the light inside, that extraordinary power that lies latent in the hearts of so many of us.

In the words of Yogi Bhajan: “Spread the light, be the light.” If you can’t be the candle, be the mirror that reflects it, as novelist Edith Wharton advises. Realize that your presence in critical moments might spell a difference in the lives of persons close to you.

I’m sure you’ve come across the story of the blind man who always carried with him a lighted lamp when he went out at night. When asked why he bothered to carry a lighted lamp when he couldn’t see anyway, the blind man answered, “Yes, I am blind and this lamp may not be of any use to me. But, bright light being carried by me is for people like you who can see. At night the streets are dark, and you may not see the way. That is why I am carrying this lantern.”

If we are to usher in the higher possibilities for our life on earth, you and I must carry the light, play our part in our personal lives, and assume our vital roles as light bearers, showing the way for the many who cannot find their way in the dark. It is a calling of our souls.

So, this Christmas, turn on your interior light. Unlike the Christmas lights that you store away after the holidays, it’s the kind of light that you can keep turned on all the days of your life. Happy holidays to you and your family!