When One Light Helps Others Glow

Some of the happiest people you know have walked through the dark and somehow returned carrying light for the rest of us.

Jen is one of them. In the last ten years she has survived thyroid cancer, a brain tumor, and a torn Achilles. Five years ago she decided to go back to school and become a counselor, not because life was easy but because she understood pain so well she wanted to help others through theirs. Next week she will have her hip replaced. We joke that when it is done we will be Twinkies, her right hip and my left, two people rebuilt with both science and grace.

A few months ago Jen celebrated five years cancer free. That would make most people want to rest. Not Jen. This Sunday, days before her surgery, she is going water skiing. Because she can. Because joy, to her, is not what comes after healing but what makes it possible.

She spent years as a teacher lighting sparks in young minds. Now, as a counselor, she works as a light to help other people find their own. She has spent her life showing others that even in darkness, there is something worth reaching for.

Psychologists call what she embodies post traumatic growth, the ability to not only heal but to rise. I call it luminous courage.

Jen reminds us that strength is not built by what life spares us but by how fiercely we choose to keep shining. Because when one light helps others glow, the world itself becomes brighter.