Seeing More at Lighthouses
The following was inspired by a visit to Portland Breakwater Lighthouse – aka Bug Light, yesterday. Maine’s most diminutive lighthouse stirred some wide-ranging thoughts in my mind. I hope you enjoy the read!
Beckon they do, but lighthouses are not about a distinctiveness set apart. Rather, lighthouses stand in the gap with their usefulness as sentinels of goodness. Even today, as their practical utility fades, their extraordinary influence is mysteriously unwavering. Why?
In part, I believe it is because, for all their beauty and charm, there is so much more to lighthouses than meets the eye. In actuality, we may admire lighthouses for their alluring persona, but these guardians were not built for selfdom. Anything but!
How can we know? Just by stepping inside a lighthouse and climbing its winding stairs and ladders. Here, ample evidence is found. Along the way, we see light pouring in from windows, while outward we are compelled to look upon arriving at each one. The views may be confining in direction, but not in discernment.
Onward. Higher we journey to where the pinnacle of enlightenment is reached inside the lantern. Only inside a lantern is the purpose of a lighthouse fully revealed. Yet inward has never been the focus of any lighthouse. Its aim, like kindness, extends rather than shrinks.
Lantern panes entice us to gaze north, south, east and west. The scenes are breathless, but amidst the wonder of it all, a sense of duty yet abounds. Lightkeepers once maintained a vigilant watch for others by peering out to sea. For, if by day, a vessel was in distress, it must first be seen for help to go forth.
And of course, inside a lantern resides the vital guiding light, whose lifesaving powers shine by night. Its radiance is never withdrawn or stashed for self-serving purposes. Just the opposite! A beacon’s light is given without conditions, nor do circumstances – no matter how difficult or dire, dampen its intent.
I see lighthouses not as mere edifices, but as passageways for the mind and heart. Such passageways enable us to help others in time of need, protect all that we hold dear in our lives and better appreciate the treasure-trove of history and tradition gifted to us.
Lighthouses allow us to see more distinctly, maybe even differently. For lighthouses are all about what is beyond – be it self or the preoccupied moment at hand. Herein a timeless wisdom resides, and this is why the value of lighthouses is inextinguishable.