Often, spiritual and religious people discuss finding their faith, when they came to faith, and how they were lost without their faith. It is less often that the subject is brought up that people need ignited to keep the faith. That inner flame in the person's spirit is there from the beginning, but like any good lamp, it needs to be lit again from time to time. It needs reviving.
What has revived my inner life, my entire life, is leaving society, going to nature, and finding one-ness with creation. That which is created is part of the Creator. It cannot be any other way. The Creator's blessing and imprint is upon it. In our world, we forget that we are human. We connect to technology and the hunt for the American dream to only realize that what we had along, quite like Dorothy, was not only plentiful but wisely sustaining. When we asked for help, we could have been helped by those around us from the beginning of our journeys, but, like Dorothy, some of us began by dropping a lot of baggage onto the scene to start with a bit of carnage and wreckage. Not everyone is going to want to bond with or help a cheery, house-dropping, sibling-killing newbie. Often, those with the same secular masks covering their own flaws will provide a roundabout means of earning the desired outcome when a simple solution is all that's needed. A customer service smile is often just that -- a means to deaden the experience until the clock rolls around for lots of people to do what they want instead of the grind for the next paycheck. The issue within the drollness of life and the ditches that we have seemingly dug ourselves into in America is that the wick has been burned through the candle. At some point, a flame doesn't burn without some kind of wick whether it be rope, pine needles or otherwise.
What is your wick? For some, the quest of knowledge is what holds their flame in place. For others, the bonds that they have with their families keep them burning bright. Without a place to hold the fire, the candle doesn't burn and neither do our souls hunting for their own understanding. We would rather extinguish than burn brightly. We don't worry about hiding our lights under the proverbial bushel as much as we may be concerned about those who continue to bushel our lights. In a world of offendedness, the social construct that reigns is a huge game of keeping my light away from your bushel -- a global game of claiming ownership over the candles on one's birthday cake to protect them while another attempts to blow them out to get to one's cake faster.
How tired I am of candles at vigils for the dead and causes, being the only use of the archaic flames in our lives! How tired are all of us of the lists of names in our country that are read to honor the extinguished people by the violent bushel of another! The very first time I notice that I was at peace and far from the violence of the world was around a campfire. This was a fire that united all of those around in melodies, snacks, and sweetness. The circle of those whom without the glow of the fire circle and the singing of the music would not have experienced peace that year. As the fire pit was filled and prepared, their inner wicks appeared. They wanted to be lit. To enjoy as much of the fire that they had built was the only thing that ignited them into a peaceful evening and continued year. The peace they found as their own wicks were ignited just as the fire was, was contagious. It was here that my inner life was also ignited. It was just peaceful.
Still today, it is not the candles at the vigils we hold or the ones gathered in services for Christmas Eve or even Channukah that ignite me. It is the one that I light every day. My own personal candle to set the day apart from the world with the intention that I will try to write something beautiful, to live a better life, to embrace changes and challenges, to live what I believe regardless of onlookers and critics, and to remember that striving to perfection means that an intention to shine through the cracks in our stories and perceptions of others may be the only way to stay lit in an engulfing society.
Set the intention to stay aflame -- to burn brightly when the rest of the world seems to be darkened. Be the wick around which the fire can burn brightly for the world to see how well a melody can encompass peace for one evening and bring it through the entire year. Be the wick in the middle of your flame giving to others the same opportunity to shine.
Embrace what lights you up everyday!
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