The Lighthouse

As I was turning the pages of my journal, I paused at a chapter called The Lighthouse. Years ago, I had shared this reflection because I believed it was worth taking a moment to think about the people who shape our lives. One of the invitations was simple: think of someone who illuminated your path.

Before I had even finished reading the page, one name came to mind.

My grandfather.

My grandfather embodied kindness. Helping others wasn’t something he consciously set out to do; it was simply part of who he was. There was an elegance and dignity in the way he treated people. He never made anyone feel smaller by accepting his help. If anything, he seemed grateful for the opportunity to give.

Although he passed away when I was still a little girl, the values he lived by became one of the greatest inheritances of my life.

Years later, while volunteering with the Red Cross, I understood a small part of what my grandfather had been showing me all along.

I was helping distribute warm meals to refugees and people experiencing homelessness. If I’m honest, I arrived with assumptions of my own. Instead, I was met with warm smiles, gratitude and conversations that stayed with me.

I had gone there thinking I was giving something.

I left feeling like I had received just as much.

Only later did I realise that I wasn’t doing anything extraordinary. I was simply carrying forward some of the values my grandfather had passed on to me.

My grandfather was my first lighthouse, but over the years I’ve realised he wasn’t the only one.

I think life has a beautiful way of placing people on our path, often without them realising the impact they’ll have.

I still remember a guide in Peru who carried my backpack during part of a difficult trek so I could make it to the end. It was a simple gesture, one that I still appreciate today.

I also remember a teacher who challenged the way we looked at the world, encouraging us to think more carefully about what we consumed and the choices we made.

Looking back, I realise that perhaps this is how kindness travels. Someone gives us something along the way, and without always noticing, we carry a little of it forward.

Perhaps we don’t always realise who our lighthouses are until we stop long enough to look back.

I wonder who yours might be. And if someone came to mind, perhaps today is a good day to let them know.