October 4--The Flame That Is Life

Life is a pure flame, and we live by an invisible sun within us.

Thomas Brown

* * * * *

Today's Meditation:

I have to wonder what my life would be like if I were to be able to truly see life the way that Thomas sees it--a pure flame that is brilliant and illuminating.  What would my life be like if I lived with the idea that within me there is an invisible sun that can illuminate the lives of others, that can spread its light to anyone with whom I come in contact, and that the flame that I am can bring warmth and comfort to the people in my life.

Sometimes I realize that I don't really have a particular way of viewing life at all.  I don't see it as a flame and I don't see it as a river and I don't see it as a road. . . life is just life.  But could I strengthen that life and the way I share it by adopting a view like this one, a view that would allow me to share my life and my enthusiasm for life with others?  I'm not talking about adopting some corny slogan or anything like that--I'm thinking about the ways that I look at life and living.

Because we can bring light to other people's lives.  We can warm them and we can illuminate their lives.  We can be comforting and we can bring hope and joy--but don't we really have to look at our lives as something that has the potential to do so?  Don't we have to consider our spirits as something special if we want to bring something special to others?  The life force that is within us actually is a very, very special blessing, yet we seem to think of it as potatoes that we hide away in a dark basement until we happen to need their nourishment--and then we bring them into the light only long enough to cook them and eat them.

Isn't it time to let our life force shine?  Isn't it time to release that sun and allow it to be a blessing for others?  Isn't it time that the invisible sun no longer is kept invisible, but allowed to shine in all the glory with which it was created in the first place?

* * * * *

Questions to consider:

Why do we so often tend to keep our spirits bottled up and hidden instead of allowing them to shine forth as the glorious things that they are?

What does it mean to say that "Life is a pure flame"?  Do you live as if it truly were such?

How might you let your invisible sun shine forth for a change?

* * * * *

For further thought:

O beautiful human life!  Tears come to my
eyes as I think of it.  So beautiful,
so inexpressibly beautiful!  The song should
never be silent, the dance never still, the laugh
should sound like water which runs forever.

Richard Jeffries




More on life.