Well, back in 1982, the movie ET first came out…that’s almost 37 years ago.  I’m guessing most of you have seen that movie or if not, you might want to.  However, there is a chorus from the movie in a song sung by Neil Diamond…and it goes like this:

“Turn on your heartlight

Let it shine wherever you go

Let it make a happy glow

For all the world to see.”

I heard that song on the radio over the weekend and I think I actually heard the chorus with new ears and new eyes.  What if we all turned on our heartlights?  Can you imagine what the world would be like?

I’m sure I don’t need to share with you the awful tragedies that have struck our world in just the past week.  Tornadoes and flooding across our midland, children missing when entrusted to another’s care, 77 year old nun beheaded in Central African Republic, Refugee crisis in Latin America, and the list of the endless tragedies goes on and on and on.  Remember the Yemen Civil War or the Ukraine Civil War or the Persecution of the Rohinya or the Syrian War or the unrest and starvation in Venezuela or the Sociopolitical unrest in Nicaragua.  YES, the list is so long that we have a hard time wrapping our brains around all that unfolds, partially because we no more than hear about one tragedy, and then, boom….there is another and another and another.

Yet, today, I really want to focus on the “HEARTLIGHTS”, on those like you, who are truly trying to make a positive, loving and kind difference wherever and whenever they can.  

While we can all watch the inspiring stories on the news or on internet, there are many which will never be that well known….AND THAT’S OK!  Mother Teresa once said, “there are no great deeds, just small deeds done with great love”.  I think what Mother Teresa was saying is that we must each find ways to bring loving kindness into our daily lives.  When we do this, we turn on our heartlights and it radiates out to others, far and wide. It’s your heartlights that keep the Mission going and it’s your heartlights of kindness that enable us to serve those in greatest need.

The Dalai Lama says it this way: “Whenever possible, be kind.  It is always possible.”

And The Book of Proverbs expresses it this way:  “Do not let kindness and truth leave you; bind them around your neck.  Write them on the tablet of your heart.”

So, no matter what our spiritual walk is, there is an emphasis on the need to be kind and when we are kind, we let “our heartlights” glow.

While it is true that we can’t do it all and we can’t heal the world in one day or feed all hungry children, or shelter all the homeless, we can do something.  And all our little “somethings” became the heartlights for the world to see!

How will you choose to be kind today?  What will you do to share your heartlight with others?

Thoughts, gestures, words, actions…they all either add to the loving kindness of the universe or detract from it, so perhaps we can focus on “turning on our heartlights”.  Perhaps we can think kinder thoughts, provide more loving gestures, speak kinder words, and engage in loving and healing actions today.  If we do this, we won’t have to worry about changing the world, because the world will slowly evolve into loving kindness as a direct and indirect effect of who we’ve become!

Turn on your heartlights and live and be hope today and everyday.

Sr. Debbie Blow, OP