🌾The Lantern on the River.

In a small village, where real candles still burned in the windows of the houses at night, there lived a widow who went down to the riverbank every day.

She took nothing with her — only a small, clay lantern.

As evening fell, she lit the flame in it and placed it on the water.

The children of the village often watched her curiously to see what she was doing.

"What is that lantern for, auntie?" a little girl once asked.

"The water puts it out!"

The woman smiled, a smile on her face that only someone who is no longer afraid of silence knows.

"Every lantern sends a message somewhere," she said. "You don't always have to know where you're going.

It's enough to set off."

The little girl thought about it for a long time.

The next evening, she made a small lantern, lit it, and placed it on the water.

The flame swayed, the river carried it with it, and a strange, warm feeling awoke in the little girl's heart: as if the water did not take the light away, but rather passed it on.

Years passed.

The little girl grew up, moved away from the village, but a memory remained in her heart: an old woman, a lamp, and a sentence:

"It is enough for you to set off."

One day, after many years, when she could barely hear herself in the noise of the city, she went out to the river that ran through the city.

She sat down on the bank, took out a small lamp, lit it, and placed it on the water.

As she looked at the flame, for a moment she felt as if the river was whispering:

"I remember you."

🌙 Lesson:

The light we set off never goes out.

The water may take it away, but somewhere, in someone, it will flare up again.

You don't know who you touch, but if you act with love, the world will remember you.