Image by Mara E. Karpel, 2026
“All the darkness in the world cannot extinguish the light of a single candle.”
~ quote often attributed to St. Francis of Assisi
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My heart hurts. It feels like it’s breaking. At times, it’s hard to breathe as the pain is so intense. I’ve felt this before, from time to time, but now the pain is unrelenting and growing deeper. There’s nothing wrong with my heart. And I don’t want to patch it up and make the ache go away because this tenderness is a sign of a healthy heart, of one that can still feel compassion in the face of witnessing ongoing and increasing cruelty and suffering.
There are some who will say that such compassion is a sign of weakness. They are misinformed. In fact, the opposite is true. It takes quite a bit of strength to keep our hearts open to the suffering of others and to maintain our ability to care.
I believe that most would agree that we’re living through a very divided time in this country and the world. For those of us who are willing to be strong enough to bear witness, it’s been excruciating and, at times, very dark. Every day over the past several months, the darkness has persisted, growing even darker and gloomier, and my heart has grown heavier.
Yet, I also know that, as the English proverb reminds us, “It’s always darkest before the dawn.” I remember from my own experiences that, if we allow ourselves to get sucked into the vortex of darkness, we lose our ability to shine our own light into the world or to help others. And the world definitely needs our light right now. The key is to keep our hearts open.
There are many benefits to living with an open heart, which I’ve written about in my book, The Passionate Life: Creating Vitality & Joy at Any Age. I believe compassion is such a necessary component of living a passionate life that I devoted an entire chapter to it: Kindness and Giving Without Expectations.
In this chapter, I described how each of us, even through small acts of kindness, can positively affect the world. As our kindness ripples into the world, it chases out the darkness with light. I’ve been writing about this for the past few years. You can check out the blog I wrote after the Los Angeles fires for more thoughts about this: Compassion is the Key to Saving Our World and To Living Our Best Selves: Reaching Out with Compassion for Those Affected by the Fires, Hurricanes, and Other Disasters.
The bottom line is that we each have the ability to hold one single candle, which has the power to light the darkness all by ourselves.
The dilemma is this: Those of us who refuse to look away or build a hard shell around our hearts know how important our compassion is for making positive change. Yet it’s gotten so much harder as the suffering we witness intensifies. This is not sustainable for us, peaceful warriors, if we don’t find a way to see the glimmers of peace and hope in front of us. We need to open our eyes to what we can be grateful for. And we need to maintain social support while doing this.
What has brought me hope, as well as a connection with many who want peace, has been watching and, in a sense, participating through social media, the journey of the Buddhist monks. With their goal of “raising awareness of peace, loving- kindness, and compassion across America and the world,” they have been walking across the country from Texas, up through the deep South, as they make their way to their final destination, Washington, DC. If you are among those who have not yet heard about the Walk for Peace, this is a historic event in American history. We are witnessing true peace and beauty in direct juxtaposition to the pain and suffering that’s also historically occurring in this country.
Twenty Buddhist monks and their Peace Dog, Aloka, began a 2,300-mile journey on foot in Ft. Worth, Texas, in October 2025. The venerable monks and Aloka began their trek, some of them barefoot, alone on country roads in Texas, with barely a soul aware of their presence. After two monks were hit by a car just outside of Houston in November, causing one of the monks to lose his leg, the coverage about the Walk for Peace on social media went viral. As I’ve watched this endeavor to spread peace, I’ve grown more and more optimistic because the number of people showing up to support the monks’ mission has grown exponentially. Once they reached Georgia, thousands of people gathered to see them along the way and to hear them speak. In Columbia, South Carolina, there were 10,000 people at the venue where they spoke.
Imagine my excitement when I discovered that the path of the Walk for Peace would pass right near my home. As I waited for weeks in anticipation of their arrival, a flock of sheep started showing up by my house. One may call this timing coincidental. But sheep are a symbol of peace, and showing up three days in a row, for only me to witness, has been a sign for me to remember peace. This feels like a lot more than coincidence.
The day finally came when I got to witness the monks in person. I was amongst a crowd of 8,500 people who gathered on that day. It was beautiful and hope-inspiring that so many, all in one place, shared this vision. It felt like all of us strangers were connected with the one desire for peace.
As a bonus, I learned that the monks would be passing near my home the next afternoon. So, I, along with several others, lined the side of the country road, smiling and joyful, awaiting the monks to walk by us. I met some very kind people, all sharing the joy and deep longing for peace. The monks arrived, and I had the fortune of a peace-filled interaction with them, making silent eye contact with each monk and handing a bouquet of orange flowers to Venerable Bhikku Pannakara.
The monks welcome the gift of flowers because they then hand out single flowers to people who look as though their spirits could be lifted. I guess it was obvious that I was one of those people who needed such a lift, because one of the other monks in the group quietly handed me a yellow rose. My heart was full when I arrived home, whereupon I learned that the sheep had been grazing on my lawn while I had been standing on the roadside, experiencing the monks. This was a reminder to me, once again, that, even with pain, there is peace….and sometimes even a bit of magic.
These monks are carrying the torch we need in this dark time. I can’t describe the emotions I felt while watching them and their interactions with people of all faiths, ethnicities, races, and political views coming together to experience this event, many, if not all, craving peace. The monks’ journey and the throngs of people supporting them have given me a newfound hope that most of us really want peace. The monks have reminded us that, above all else, we are all human. And their loving message has served to light my own way.
When the darkness of the world becomes overwhelming, I tap into the peacefulness inside as I remember the sheep grazing outside my home, along with the message from the lead monk, Venerable Bhikkhu Pannakara , to start every day by writing down and repeating “Today is my peaceful day.”
Peace is not the absence of pain, Pannakara tells us, but it’s the courage to maintain our compassion in spite of the pain, while maintaining mindfulness of our own breath in the present moment and the peace within ourselves, even in the most difficult of situations. Because, as he reminds us, life is filled with painful situations, and has always been. But, we can choose not to suffer.
So, how does the Walk for Peace actually create peace when our world is in so much turmoil? Well, they are walking specifically because of the suffering of so many. Once one experiences their peace, whether in person or by watching their videos on social media, we really don’t want anything other than peace, both within ourselves and around us. We sense a connection with the thousands of strangers who are also witnessing their journey.
If so many long for this feeling of peace and connection, and we each make the effort to be peaceful inside, by practicing loving-kindness and compassion, the effects will ripple out and grow dramatically while we connect with others on our own journeys. This replenishes our inner light and peace, and it gives us the strength to maintain our compassion for those who are most in need of it right now.
I’m more convinced than ever, hearing of people driving for hours or even flying from other parts of the country to be close to the monks, that there are more of us who want peace and compassion than those who desire to inflict cruelty and suffering. And for the first time in a long while, my heart feels lighter. I have hope once again because I know that, together, our light will shine brighter and brighter, driving out the darkness. In the famous words of Martin Luther King Jr., on whose birthday I experienced the monks in person the first time, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that.”
A Daily Practice for Peace
Here are two tips given by Venerable Bhikkhu Pannakara to help to bring us back to our inner peace:
- Keep a piece of paper and pen by your bed. Before getting out of bed or looking at your phone (or your “lover,” as Pannakara refers to your phone), write “Today is my peaceful day.” Read it aloud and repeat it several times. Then, repeat it silently to yourself several times. Do this every day with a new piece of paper. This will help you start each day with peace.
- Mindful breathing: Breathing in slowly, say silently, “one,” then out slowly, saying silently, “one.” Then: in “two,” out “two,” all the way to “ten,” and then back to “one.” Do this several times per day and whenever you’re feeling the absence of peacefulness.
Together, we can drive out the darkness with our light.
Peace.
You can read similar blogs by Dr. Mara at her website, where you can also listen to her internet radio show, now also on Apple Podcasts. Check out Dr. Mara’s book: The Passionate Life: Creating Vitality & Joy at Any Age and her chapter (Chapter 18), Empower Yourself in an Ageist Healthcare System: How to More Effectively Advocate For Your Loved One, in the new bestselling book, The Caregiver’s Advocate: A Complete Guide to Support and Resources, Volume 2, now available on Amazon.
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