There is a piece of light in all of us,
easily seen in the wise Thomas Berry
longing to heal the wounds of our planet,
in Dorothy Day who embraced the poor,
and Mahatma Gandhi, fighting for peace
with the weapon of nonviolence.
There is a piece of light in all of us,
the grandmothers and grandfathers,
children orphaned by AIDS and war,
the feeble, the lame, the disheartened,
the successful as well as the searcher.
There is a piece of light in all of us,
maybe hidden or buried with pain,
perhaps pushed in the corner by shame.
It is there in the arrogant, the hateful,
racists, torturers, and abusers,
and ones who are willing to kill.
Seen or unseen, the light is there,
ready to kindle, eager to expand,
refusing to be tightly contained.
As soon as the tiniest space is allowed
it quickly emerges, floods outward,
illuminating the darkest of places.
One single candle lights a little dark space.
Many candles light a world full of people
desperately in need of each other’s glow.
Each lone light makes us stronger
when we all stand together.
(Taken from: The Cosmic Dance, publ. by Orbis Books)
