Start a Fire

by Ray Reuter on February 21, 2019

“The human spirit, like a campfire, must be lit again each day.” —Steve Chandler

Imagine you are camping. You light a fire, enjoy it for the night, then wake up the next day. The fire has burned itself out. You understand that it will be necessary to start a new campfire tonight if you want to be warm. You don’t complain or believe that something is wrong with the fire. We don’t curse the campfire for going out, and we don’t think life is unfair because we have to start another fire again the next night.

Steve suggests that our human spirit is like that. Our spirit must be lit every day just like a campfire. Of course we wish the good mood and positive vibes we create today could just burn forever but, alas, that’s not quite how it works. This confuses us and we think something is wrong with us or the world or it is someone’s fault. We have a tendency and temptation to believe we deserve a continuous stream of goodness, of consolation, because we “lit the fire” at some point.

No … our spirit, attitude, outlook must be renewed and relit each day. There is a gift in that process for us if we look closely. Relighting the fire of our spirit gives us control over the fire. We can add more wood, we can add more fuel, we can pour water over it to put it out. Each day, each “fire,” is a new unique experience of living. And if we experience a particularly difficult day, if we feel unhappy or sad or disappointed … we can look forward to tomorrow and a new spirt fire.

There is so much power and “energy” when we understand and practice this principle. The reason is that we accept responsibility every day for ourselves and our well being. And when we inevitably feel a little off or not ourselves our out of sync, we can simply get to work and start a fire doing the things that will help us live unfettered.

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