The Flame That Burns Forever

Introduction: Don’t worry if you don’t understand this. It doesn’t matter.

A Candle That Burns Forever

Let this be a spark

Now we don’t need the oil to burn for eight days. We need it to burn for 365 days.

You are the ark. Something was lit in your heart. A spark came in and a flame began, and it will never go out. You can never let it go out. You can think you let it go out. You can think that it’s gone. But it is persistent. It is there nonetheless. When the shadows come, when the night surrounds you, it is still there. When the sun is so bright that the flame is forgotten, it is still there.

Let all the candles gather around you. And as you look to each candle, to each flame, as your mind revolves, as your mind reaches outward in its circle, as you see the flames, small or large, as you recognize the different sizes and hues and heights, the different distances, the different feelings evoked within you, recognize that what sees those flames, from the smallest to those so large they disappear from your vision, is not the eye of your physical sight, it is that same eternal flame that has been lit within you, that recognizes itself, that recognizes the fire that it is, the flame that it is, the life that it is.

It is always there.

© 2024 Shanti Natania Grace
Photo by Alex Ringer from https://freeimages.com/

~~~~~~~~

Where the Light Begins

Perhaps it does not begin.
Perhaps it is always.

Perhaps it takes
a lifetime
to open our eyes,
to learn to see
what has forever
shimmered in front of us

the luminous line
of the map
in the dark

the vigil flame
in the house
of the heart,

the love
so searing
we cannot keep
from singing,

from crying out
in testimony
and praise.

Perhaps this day
will be the mountain
over which
the dawn breaks.

Perhaps we
will turn our face
toward it,
toward what has been
always.

Perhaps
our eyes
will finally open
in ancient recognition,
willingly dazzled,
illuminated at last.

Perhaps this day
the light begins
in us.

 – Jan Richardson, from Circle of Grace, Wanton Gospeller Press –

~~~~~~~~~~~