Stoking the inner fire

I'm feeling deeply grateful for my life and the connections I have made with others. To be a part of bringing about change, profound change, and hearing a smile over the phone line, a smile of relief, of sharing good news, a smile of utter joy for the changes afoot -- this makes it all worthwhile. There is something to this feeling, something that brings a flutter to my belly and a lightness to my step, like being in love. It's as if I sense a light at my core with the intensity not unlike that of a bright, hot flame.

John O'Donohue's poem, In Praise of Fire, celebrates this feeling beautifully.

Let us praise the grace and risk of Fire.

In the beginning,

The Word was red,

And the sound was thunder,

And the wound in the unseen

Spilled forth the red weather of being.

In the name of the Fire,

The Flame

And the Light:

Praise the pure presence of fire

That burns from within

Without thought of time.

The hunger of Fire has no need

For the reliquary of the future;

It adores the eros of now,

Where the memory of the earth

In flames that lick and drink the air

Is made to release

Its long-enduring forms

In a powder of ashes

Left for the wind to decipher.

As air intensifies the hunger of fire,

May the thought of death

Breathe new urgency

Into our love of life.

As fire cleanses dross,

May the flame of passion

Burn away what is false.

As short as the time

From spark to flame,

So brief may the distance be

Between heart and being

May we discover

Beneath our fear

Embers of anger

To kindle justice.

May courage

Cause our lives to flame,

In the name of the Fire,

And the Flame

And the Light.

from To Bless the Space Between Us