Once my family bought a big framed print of this sublime photograph from Ikea. It's the kind of photo you can't help but create a story for, incidentally it's also the kind of photo that makes its way into lots of stories. It came to mind when I was reading the Rime of the Ancient Mariner last year, and when I read Lighthouse Keeping. Who is the man in the doorway, and is he coming out or retreating back in? Does he live in the light house? Does he live alone? Where is his boat - will the wave wash it away and will he ever get back? I always assume that that wave is somehow life changing or unprecedented, but perhaps living in a lighthouse you get used to storms.
Recently I was reading a blogpost by Hannah Brencher, in which she wrote these words that brought this image to mind:
Be a lighthouse but never a lifeboat. The two are very different. A lighthouse stands there tall and shining. A lifeboat is hellbent on saving people. There is a savior mentality stitched into most of us. We want to save. We want to fix.
You will learn in the next few years that you were made to love and protect, dig and dream. You were made to stare at the sky and ask questions about God. But you, my girl, were never created to save anyone. Be careful not to drown in the effort of trying.
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