“This is the time to be slow, Lie low to the wall Until the bitter weather passes.
Try, as best you can, not to let The wire brush of doubt Scrape from your heart All sense of yourself And your hesitant light.
If you remain generous, Time will come good; And you will find your feet Again on fresh pastures of promise, Where the air will be kind And blushed with beginning.
I was writing in my journal yesterday afternoon, a soft Spring sun streaming through the window into the loft, four candles burning. I paused in my writing to watch the candles burn, and was stricken by the metaphor in front of me, four candles all burning brightly, within the constrictions of their containers, all so different, some new, and some near their extinguishing, but burn with their own unique flames they did. How like people, I thought. All with their own wondrous inner flame of life, and love, and expression in the world, and all burning brightly within the containers of their individual circumstance.
At times those flames are muted, at times blown sideways by the wind, at times straight and strong and unwavering. But still, they burn, we all burn with our inner flame. Our soul’s light, our spirit’s flame, an ardent constant of pure love. This we share with all humanity.
May we honor each of our unique, burning flames today, recognizing that we all endeavor to shine brightly, to share light, within the containers of our circumstances. Young, old, challenged, unwell, unemployed, overwhelmed, peaceful, adapting, unique, wondrous, majestic flames all. Let us acknowledge the sacredness of each flame, and let none be extinguished before their time.
“Now , I want only to give away all that I’m blessed to know and disappear in the stream.”
-Mark Nepo
Quarantine self care is a thing I’m allowing myself, gifting myself with, so before a long hot mid-afternoon bath, I picked up my novel, lit a candle, put in some “Tired Old Ass” bath salts – thanks Craig 🙂 – and lowered into my soak.
Except, I didn’t pick up my novel… By mistake, instead, I opened the book I had picked up, Mark Nepo’s Seven Thousand Ways to Listen, to the above passage.
One of those life moments of perfection happened… the words, the timing, the quiet to absorb them.
What is enough to leave as a legacy? What will say that I’ve been here, that my life mattered, that will endure?
Oh yes, to share everything that your heart and soul has been blessed to learn and simply enter the stream…
And to Love! To leave that imprint of how much, how deeply, I loved… how passionately, how fiercely, I loved the wild ones, the forest, the trees, all of nature’s majesty and mystery, the wonder of the moment, my family, my husband, my dog, and all those four legged that shared my life through the years, my forever friends, my nieces and nephews. SO much Love.
