CareTakeR or CareGiveR?

#39- The Life of a Lighthouse Keeper
 
PART II
 
Being a caretaker is easy. We know how to be caretakers. If you caretake for a child, you feed, clothe, soothe, provide, and make sure that child’s needs are taken care of. If you care take for a car, you fill it with gas, you clean it up, and you get it checked out. You take care of it when it needs fixing.

But to be a Lighthouse Keeper is something totally different.
 
To be a Lighthouse Keeper is a new way of living and a new way of looking at caretaking. Notice it is not called Lighthouse Caretakers. They are called Keepers. All you must do is keep the light shining. Your job is not to fix, change, or make it different or better.

Your job is to keep that light shining bright so those ships lost and looking to find their way will have a light to follow into port, safe on shore.
 
But to keep the light shining is a full time job! You must say “No” a lot. You are not to leave your lighthouse. You are not to go row out into the ocean or lake and seek or search for those who are lost if they cry for help. If you do this, the light in the lighthouse will go out, for there will be no one there to keep it lit. There are other people who swim out to rescue.

That is not your job. Your job is to stay still and shine your light.
 
You do not need to change this lighthouse. It is the color it is to make it be seen by others out there in the foggy days and cloudy nights. There is nothing to fix or change.  The lighthouse is there by design to be who it is, in the place and manner it was created.

There is nothing wrong with a lighthouse. It just needs a lot of maintenance, time, and care to keep it looking new, and well, keep it shining bright.
 
To be a lighthouse and a lighthouse keeper is not easy. You do not get vacations. You do not get time off. You do not get a chance to go see other shores, to go find others places to be or do or rescue like a life guard would. You do not get to jump into the storm, but you also do not get to run away from them either.

Your job is to stand still, be the strength in the fury of the wind, and keep that light shining.
 
This job is not for the faint of heart. It is a lot of work to keep that light shining. There are many storms, and even sunlight that will beat on the lighthouse and wear it down. There are waves and wind and birds and weather that will eat away at the paint and chip the windows. There is solitude and often lonely times. There is much to learn and you must become adapt at being a mechanic, a housekeeper, a painter, a landscaper, and most importantly, an expert in keeping that light lit.
 
It takes a lot of work, perseverance, and an ability to forge ahead during times when others would stop and quit. There is very little applause or praise for doing your job. People do not stop and cheer when the lighthouse is lit up bright, but they do complain when it goes out.

But there are good things too about being a Lighthouse Keeper too.
 
There are those moments when a ship comes into the channel and blows its horn in appreciation for finding its way all because it could see your light and says “I could not have done it without you!” There are days when the sun is shining and the paint is new and the waves are calm and the fishermen stop to give you their latest catch and have dinner near the fire.

There are times at night when the stars are so bright you can feel as if you can touch them, and you feel immense gratitude you have chosen to be out here on the edge of it all instead of in town where the loud noisy lights block the sky.
 
A Lighthouse Keeper can feel as though they are very far away sometimes, but at the same time you are closer to the connection of it all, the space of life that is the between zone of beach, earth, sky, and water. You are the one holding the space on the shore to help those find their way. You are the one providing that safe harbor! You are the one whose work means the most of all. Without you, there would be no light to help those find their way. Without you, there would be no direction, no guidance, no place for others to look to when they are lost.

Without you there would be no way to find home.
 
Your Lighthouse is you. Your body, your spirit, your psychological health, emotional well being, and I the Observer all rolled into one. You are a Lighthouse. Not everyone is. Most cannot handle this job. They are content running around chasing the children, trying to keep them clean, and polishing their cars so everyone will see how good they look. Their worth comes from what is seen outside of themselves.
 
To be Lighthouse means your contribution to the world comes from inside.

It is the work you do inside the structure that is you that helps shine your light. It is you that is the light and your inner work is the work that keeps that light bright. Without it you are nothing more than a building on a beach.
 
Not everyone can be a Lighthouse Keeper.

It takes a very unique person to be able to handle the job. It takes a very unique person to be able to stand tall and strong and face the storms when they come, keeping that light lit in the darkness when everyone else runs and hides. It is not a job for the faint of heart. But it is a magnificent job.
 
It is a job full of adventure and possibility, for every day is a different day! You never know who is going to come in off those waves into harbor. You never know what weather will bring. You get to wear so many different hats. Each day is a day to stretch your learning muscles and face a new adventure.

It is never boring, never dull, and never a time when there is not something new to learn. It is the adventure of a lifetime.
 
And if you do your job as a Lighthouse Keeper well, when you need that energy, when you need that strength, when you need that light, it will shine so bright the whole world will see you shine.
 
You are an incredible being, a glorious light! You are a rare and much needed person in this planet, in this world, in this human society today. Do not let anyone tell you otherwise, or take away the possibilities that await you as the Lighthouse you are meant to be.

Shining your light is not an easy job, but it is so needed and so worth it!
 
Being a Lighthouse Keeper is the secret to having wonderful relationships full of respect, honor, integrity, peace, love, and joy in the unique people that inhabit our world with us.

Feel into the joy that being you brings in this world, and let it shine and Open Up to the Possibility that you might just love the job of a Lighthouse Keeper.
 
 
Your Optional Short Cut:
Take a deep breath, close your eyes, and tune into your heart space, and ask yourself:
 
- How does it feel thinking of yourself as a Lighthouse?
- What priorities in your life would you have to change to be a Lighthouse Keeper?
 
 
What ideas come to you?
 
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***** YOU ARE A SHINING STAR! *****
 
* These Possibility Pauses are for you to hit the pause button in your life for just a moment to get answers, ideas, solutions, and hope that you might not otherwise get moving through life on auto-pilot.
 

Thanks for taking a moment to hit pause and open up to Possibility!
Appreciate you, all you are, and all you do to bring life and possibility to the world, starting with your inner world! Here’s to the possibilities to come!
 
 
© JP, Jeannine Proulx, A Possibility Pause
The Star Shine Club
www.thepossibilitypath.com

 
***If you know of someone else who is interested in becoming a Star Shine Club Member and get personal insight and weekly NEW content,  go to the Star Shine Club page or Patreon.com/thepossibiltypath