You strike a match, and light a sputtering candle. Around you, the wind whips, threatening the flame as it struggles to take hold. Instinctively, you cup your hand protectively around the tiny tongue of fire, feeling its warmth grow against your palm. It wouldn’t take much to squelch this dancing flame—one well placed breath, one cruel pinch of the fingers, one snaking puff of wind. Somewhere in your deepest self you understand: If you want to use this flame to light the way –for yourself, for others– you’re going to have to protect it, nurture it, honor it. Otherwise it, it will sputter and die.
A similar flame – the passion and purpose that sparks our dreams and our life’s work–exists in every one of us. It is precious and vital, and tender beyond measure. Without it, we are rudderless and pointless, scraping around for some sense of direction and measure of hope. That’s why it’s essential that we guard it like fort Knox, and take pains to keep it lit, hardy and happening.
All too often, we allow others to squelch the flame of our purpose and passion. It doesn’t take much: One derisive statement from someone who purports to love us, one eyebrow raised, one comment dripping with sarcasm: “You, start a business? Well, THAT I’ll have to see to believe!” One remark, aimed directly at the jugular (“You can’t make a living as an artist, that’s crazy!); one audience member, arms crossed, aloof or glaring, sitting in the front row as you give your presentation to an otherwise rapt audience.
It is in our nature to give attention to one negative voice in spite of a hundred supportive ones. And if we are not careful, we can let that single voice squash our flame, our dream, our hope, our best.. If we’re not careful, if we’re not vigilant, if we don’t make a constant, pointed effort to protect the burning flame that goads us forward toward what we are here to create and champion, it will go out and we will let ourselves be less than what we could be. So don’t let your spark, the flame in you shrink and die. Guard it fiercely, so it can spur you forward. It is your birthright and your banner, meant to rise, unfurled, to touch the sky as you march towards your dreams.
“The most powerful weapon on earth is the human soul on fire,” says Ferdinand Foch. So keep the fire in you lit. And be brave in the world, in your work, and in your presentations