candles, revisited

Another night marked with candles, so now, yet another time to reflect on them. The image of warm yellow flickers is really comforting to me. They light just enough of the dark and are kind enough to leave the rest alone. Generosity rules this bunch--who bestow just the right amount of glow upon their mesmerized audience.

Of course, their biggest asset is still the associations they carry, with wishes, with celebration, with loved ones, all of which give a similar glow to the beholder, no? Hope for what you may have. Gratitude for what you do have. And support for achieving all that you have. There is a reason why these associations have the same effect in our insides as candles do in an ordinary room.

When Prometheus gave us fire, the gods punished him for giving mankind too powerful a tool. Greeks dubbed his gift the "means of life". And let's read this description more metaphorically than it was perhaps intended (like how we do with Septembers), a flame uncontrolled indeed has great potential to destroy, but maybe that's precisely why it renders life so apparent and visible to us.

In light (pun intended) of its power, I suppose it's not at all surprising what a simple flicker is capable of--to illuminate what we need to flourish, ignite what we were afraid of starting, and perhaps brighten again what we have left to gather dust.

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