The news of the terrorist school shooting Pakistan and individual senseless acts of violence around the world horrified me this week.

My life seems so safe, sheltered, and insignificant in light of these and other events going on.

What can one person do?

All I could think to do was send prayers of light to those who were hurt or grieving the loss of a loved one and send prayers of healing to everyone, even those who decide to perpetrate violence against another.

I don’t know how to right all the wrongs, heal broken hearts, or change the hearts and minds of people bent on doing violence.

The Buddha’s Last Instruction
by Mary Oliver

“Make of yourself a light”
said the Buddha,
before he died.
I think of this every morning
as the east begins
to tear off its many clouds
of darkness, to send up the first
signal—a white fan
streaked with pink and violet,
even green.
An old man, he lay down
between two sala trees,
and he might have said anything,
knowing it was his final hour.
The light burns upward,
it thickens and settles over the fields.
Around him, the villagers gathered
and stretched forward to listen.
Even before the sun itself
hangs, disattached, in the blue air,
I am touched everywhere
by its ocean of yellow waves.
No doubt he thought of everything
that had happened in his difficult life.
And then I feel the sun itself
as it blazes over the hills,
like a million flowers on fire—
clearly I’m not needed,
yet I feel myself turning
into something of inexplicable value.
Slowly, beneath the branches,
he raised his head.
He looked into the faces of that frightened crowd.

All I know for sure is to

Be the Light

Ask yourself every day, “How can I bring light today?”

Bring your true self and your true gifts out and you bring light into the world.

Even if it seems too little, too small and unimportant, send your light out into the world.

If you have a choice on whether to bring laughter or tears, choose laughter.

Touch someone.

Send out silent loving kindness prayers to someone who annoys you.

Give away smiles for free to everyone you meet.

Say, “Thank you,” to someone and really mean it.

Notice something beautiful in your surroundings and be grateful.

Help someone in need.

Create something beautiful and share it with the world.

Plant a tree.

And most of all be kind to yourself. Say loving kindness prayers for yourself. Spend some time in nature. Enter the silence.

Life is short. Send out some light today.

May you walk in beauty.