Kate had never met Mrs Donaldson before. In fact, Kate had never met anyone so close to death before and yes, it scared her somewhat. You see Kate was a young woman who was only just trying to figure out life and the journey of life’s misery and happiness is yet to be confronted.

A nurse answered the door and took her to where Mrs Donaldson lay as a skinny body resembling a frame sinking into the crisp white covers of her bed. Her hair was long, grey and wispy and her face creased with years of life. Kate noticed immediately and became momentarily transfixed with, her wide, uncannily clear brown eyes as Mrs Donaldson looked up and greeted her with a gentle smile and a slight wave of her right hand motioning her to sit down.

Kate sat down on the solid wooden chair that had seemed to be placed there especially for this occasion. The room was refreshingly bright, not like the dim and dreary one she had imagined. Sunlight spilled into the room,being allowing to enter through the open glass paned doors which revealed to the outside a small weathered timber deck with an overgrown yet still appreciable flower garden just beyond. The fresh sea air swept up the hillside and into the room from the ocean that rolled and swirled below. Kate could just see the edge of the lighthouse from where she sat with its traditional white walls and red peaked roof.

‘It is nice to meet you Mrs Donaldson. You have a lovely place here, and thank you very much for offering me the job.’

Mrs Donaldson replied in a voice that mirrored the weakness of her body but like her eyes exuded clarity, ‘Well Kate to start with you can call me Becky and I am glad you like the place. As you can see I can no longer maintain it very well so that is what I need your help with. I did have a couple helping previously but they left a few weeks ago, back to the city. Unfortunately, they weren’t very honest shall we say. That is where you are from yes?’

Kate nodded while trying to conceal the doubt that lay within her about her choice to move from the city, her friends, her family and the accumulation of all her twenty-two years of life to this small seaside township of Jenny Lind.

‘So tell me Miss Kate what made you leave the city? If you don’t mind me asking.’

Kate did feel a little uneasy about the question not wanting to see anymore scowling faces or hear anymore words of disapproval about her decision. She was struggling for wisdom or intelligence required to remove her own doubts as it was without needing to hear it from others. But there was something that read differently in Becky than those opposing her from the city, and Kate had already learned that Becky honored honesty in her employees.

‘I feel a little foolish saying Mrs… I mean Becky because I have been very lucky in my life and don’t want to sound ungrateful but I felt I needed to spread my wings a little and hence what brought me to apply for the job. I had been feeling discontentment and was inherently looking for satisfaction in my life, I guess you could say, and well, couldn’t help but wonder that maybe there is something more true and essential things in life than just being a successful city girl.’ Now i was at peace.

When we are bereft of doubts, incorrect knowledge, confusions, fear, uncertainty, we can be happy, peaceful and confident in life. See a couple of videos below on peace and happiness from YouTube:

To Kate’s relief that warm gentle smile returned to Becky’s face. ‘Well I don’t see anything foolish in that young lady. That seems a very sensible thing to do if you ask me, and brave. Not everyone can admit to their discontentment. I too did such traveling when I was younger but as I have run out of puff now and need to sleep that story will have to wait for another day. What I will tell you though is that there is a saying from India that if you take one sincere step towards the truth, the truth will take one thousand steps towards you.

Becky closed her eyes for a moment, while inhaling a long raspy breath, weariness spread across her face.

‘The nurse shall show you to your room and there is a list of jobs that will keep you busy over the next week at least I presume. Now you do like lighthouses don’t you?’

‘Very much Becky’.

‘Good, very good.’ And with that Becky shut her eyes and Kate quietly left the room and found the nurse in the kitchen of this small cottage like house.

As she crossed the lawn to the lighthouse some fifty meters away from the house, tagging behind the nurse with her two rather heavy suitcases in hand Kate actually felt a little excitement for the first time since deciding to leave the city. No doubt this was partly due to the fascination Kate had with lighthouses that began when she was about six years of age, and now she was actually going to be living in one, for a little while at least. There was something more though. Something about her meeting with Becky and that Indian saying about finding truth that had finally lit a little spark within her. Maybe she was doing the right thing after all.

It is so essential to act on wisdom and know about the real progress a person is making in his life, I saw a couple of videos in YouTube based on timeless wisdom and modern living.

There are more videos in the channel which has teachings of Jagad Guru Siddhaswarupananda Paramahamsa, he is a bonafide yoga master. He presents these teachings in a down to earth and practical manner and it has real application in everyone’s life. He has founded science of identity foundation to spread this wisdom for the benefit of the whole world.

Coming back to my story of Kate and her job in lighthouse…. As the nurse unlocked the heavy steel door and handed Kate the keys, she felt like a little girl stepping into some sort of fairy tale. Instead of a castle though it was a lighthouse. Kate itching to run up the stairs and out onto the balcony but trying to act a little mature, first thanked the nurse, brought her two suitcases in and shut the door. Then she ran up the windy steel staircase with each footstep echoing off the concrete walls. Opening the little oval door Kate stepped out onto the balcony, and with the sea breeze tickling her face, she smiled to herself as she looked out over the ocean.

What a view, she thought. Gone were the skyscrapers that crowded the sky and smothered the land, the noise of the traffic, the suffocating smoggy air and the concrete footpaths filled with busy people. Now she could see an un-obscured horizon and the deep blue of the ocean touching the feet of the light blue sky. She could smell the sea, almost taste the salt and all she could hear were the waves breaking against the rocks below and a sea eagle calling in the sky. Yes, maybe she was doing the right thing after all.