How one act can change the world around you
A teaching from Karuna
A solitary string of light
I witnessed a beautiful thing recently that demonstrates perfectly what spiritual oneness looks like.
I followed the story as it unfolded on Nextdoor over the holidays, and it still makes my heart sing. It may sound like a Christmas story, but the message is equally applicable any time of year.
For those who may not know, “Nextdoor” is an app which serves as sort of online community bulletin board for neighborhoods. As most people do, I follow my own neighborhood, as well as others in the area. Nextdoor often has posts about people offering things for sale or to give away, lost and found pets, and the occasional complaint about people not cleaning up after their dogs. But in mid-November, a post appeared that resonated with me, and clearly with the 500 or so people who “liked” the original post.
This story takes place in an older neighborhood that is a fairly large community of row houses just outside the city line. In mid-November, one resident shared publicly with a close group of friends on Facebook that she was having a hard time. She had been struggling privately with anxiety and depression for years, made even worse by the isolation of the pandemic, and she decided to “go public” with some friends. At the time, she was having difficulty even getting out of bed, and was unable to eat due to adjustments in her medication.
Upon seeing her post, one neighbor responded by running a solitary string light from her home to the woman’s house across the street—a symbol of love and friendship and hope.
Within days, more than half the block strung lights connecting their homes and hearts to the houses across the street. They worked together to string the lights, drilling holes for hooks in the brick house fronts, devising ways to string the lights high enough so that trucks driving underneath had the necessary clearance, sharing ladders to wrap lights around trees.
The result was a wonderland of lights. As one person on the block described it, “The sight was pure love.” At the entrance to their block, they hung a sign that said “Love Lives Here,” which was made by a neighbor from rope lights and coat hangers.
And that was just the beginning.
Discovering the neighbor family
Soon, the residents of block after block in this neighborhood were inspired to string lights across their streets, and around their windows and doors, creating brilliant displays in their yards—a fairyland of light and love. From their posts on Nextdoor, it was clear that people were inspired to show their love and connection for one another.
People new to the neighborhood responded by saying how welcomed they felt. Long-term residents expressed pride in being a place where people felt welcome.
As word of the lights spread, people from all over town began cruising through the neighborhood at night, enjoying the warmth and beauty of the displays even if they didn’t know the origin story of the light festival.
Many people posted their thanks and appreciation to the residents of this community, relaying how much joy the lights had brought them and their children and grandchildren. A number of people posted that they had taken their elderly parents to see the lights, and that they expressed sheer joy at the display.
As one resident put it:
“In our special community, there is magic. You can hear it in the voices and laughter of the passersby. You can see it spreading like a wildfire throughout the neighborhood. And if you let it, it will warm you from the inside out.”
The woman whose plea for connection prompted the first light to be strung wrote a commentary that appeared in the newspaper on Christmas Eve.
She tells how one night while watching a movie with her daughter in the basement, she received a text telling her to come outside. There she saw the strand of lights from her neighbor’s house to hers, along with a tin of cookies.
The next day, when she saw five of her neighbors climbing on their roofs, feeding extension cords through windows and guiding lights between trees, she burst into tears. Her children coined the phrase “neighbor family” to describe the relationship with neighbors on the block—some of whom had lived there for years, others new arrivals.
We are the lights
As Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount, we each are the light of the world. He encourages us to let our light shine.
We are the lights that stretch from house to house.
The beautiful lights of this neighborhood are a visible representation of the cosmic tapestry of interconnectedness, of Oneness. They demonstrate how being the light of love has an effect on everyone around us.
What started as a single act of one person connecting with love to a fellow human being has inspired and touched the hearts of hundreds and hundreds of people. Think about that! There was no grand plan. There was no advertisement. Yet the energy and vibration of this act of love multiplied and touched the lives of so many others, bringing joy and hope and inspiration.
This story reminds us that love is alive and well on planet Earth. As we go forward, we can ask ourselves, how can I share the love of my being, the peace of my being, the joy of my being for the upliftment of those around me? Whether it be in thought or deed, we can be assured that however we share that love and compassion, it will reverberate throughout our world, touching more beings than we could ever imagine.
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If you are interested in learning more about how one act can change the world around you, there is a wealth of information available online about the teachings of yoga philosophy, Advaita Vedanta, and the mystical teachings of Christianity, Buddhism, Taoism, Zen, Hinduism, and Judaism. You are also invited to discover these teachings through Awake Yoga Meditation’s offerings. Based on your interest in this article, you may also enjoy:
Listening to our podcast from Season 3, Episode 1: Transforming Unhappiness Into Bliss
Taking our eCourse: Catch the Wave of Awakeness!
Attending our next live meditation on Tuesday, Friday, or Sunday
Joining our free eYogi Facebook Community
You are also always invited to schedule a private, personal, spiritual conference with Swami Nityananda whether you are completely new to the study of yoga philosophy and meditation or one who is seeking to deepen your practice.