5 Fire

“What is fire? It’s a mystery. Scientists give us gobbledegook about friction and molecules. But they don’t really know. Its real beauty is that it destroys responsibility and consequences. A problem gets too burdensome, then into the furnace with it. Now, Montag, you’re a burden. And fire will lift you off my shoulders, clean, quick, sure; nothing to rot later. Antibiotic, aesthetic, practical.”

Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury. 

Fire is a beautiful, wonderful, and dangerous thing. Many of my best and worst ideas have all come from staring into a flickering flame. As a matter of fact, I am currently writing this with a candle burning next to me. I can’t smell, but I can see the flames.  Fire is a reminder of what humanity is, and what humans are placed onto the world to do. We all burn quickly, our light has the ability to cast out the shadows and be a source of hope in the coldest of moments. But just like fire, to get a flame to burn long, it needs to be nurtured and cared for, you need to take the time and effort to feed a flame otherwise it will be snuffed out  and will never burn again. We are no different. Our lives were made so that we can burn brightly, so that our time here on this earth can serve its purpose, so that with the care necessary, you can burn until the very last moment, something warm, something beautiful, something complete casting out the shadows. . . . Feed your flame, don’t let the fire go out.