A Story from Elizabeth Gilbert

Excerpted from a column by Simone Butler in the publication, Mooncircles

Some years ago, writer Elizabeth Gilbert was stuck on a crosstown bus in New York City during rush hour. As she recalled, “The bus was filled with cold, tired people who were deeply irritated – with one another, with the rainy, sleety weather, with the world itself. Two men barked at each other about a shove that might or might not have been intentional. A pregnant woman got on, and nobody bothered to offer her a seat. Rage was in the air; no mercy would be found here that day.”

Then the bus driver got on the intercom. “Folks,” he said, “I know you’ve had a rough day and you’re frustrated. I can’t do anything about the weather or the traffic, but here is what I can do. As each of you gets off the bus, I will reach out my hand to you. As you walk by, drop your troubles into the palm of my hand, OK? Don’t take your troubles home to your families tonight. My route goes right by the Hudson River and when I drive by there later, I’ll open the window and throw all your troubles in the water.”

It was as if a spell had lifted, said Gilbert. People looked at each other with surprised delight, laughing. And at the next stop, all those exiting put their hands just above the bus driver’s outstretched palm and mimed the gesture of dropping something into it. This happened at each stop, all the way to the Hudson.

This bus driver taught Gilbert something important – that anyone can be the light, at any moment. “This guy wasn’t some big power player,” she wrote. “He wasn’t a spiritual leader. He was a bus driver – one of society’s most invisible workers. But he possessed real power, and he used it beautifully for our benefit. So, when life feels especially grim, or I’m feeling powerless in the face of the world’s troubles, I think of this bus driver and ask myself, What can I do, right now, to be the light?”

… Whatever may be happening this month, follow your heart and shine your light. As Liz Gilbert reminds us, “There are times when everything seems cloaked in utter darkness. You long for the light but don’t know where to find it. But what if you are the very agent of illumination that a dark situation begs for?

No matter who you are, or where you are, or how mundane or tough your situation may seem, you can illuminate your world. In fact, I believe this is the only way the world will ever be illuminated – one simple, bright act of grace at a time, all the way to the river.”