Time to Light More Candles

A widower left to fend for an only daughter lived for her. For several years, he lived his life through her till a random and treatable illness ravaged her young body and she succumbed to her infirmities. Her hourglass ran out slowly between his fingers as the loving father ran from pillar to post, in search of help from family and friends in a race to raise the money for her treatments. Out of work for an extended period of time he had expended his modest savings on their upkeep. Meanwhile, inflation and recession double teamed to drain his reserve funds.

Totally inconsolable, bitterness overtook his soul. First, he lost his wife to a freak accident at their baby’s birth and now his daughter to a preventable, fickle illness, the man became an Egbere (Leprechaun: Yoruba), an utter recluse. He had been failed by friends, family and society. Life was too unfair and he was going to end it all at the crack of dawn. What mattered to him the most in the world was lost.

That night he had a dream. He was in Heaven, and witnessed a grand pageant of all the little child angels. They were marching in an apparently endless line past the Great White Throne. Every white-robed angelic tot carried a candle. He noticed that one child's candle was not lighted. Then he saw that the child with the dark candle was his own little girl. Rushing to her, while the pageant faltered, he seized her in his arms, caressed her tenderly, and then asked: "How is it, darling that your candle alone is unlighted? "Father, they often relight it, but your tears always put it out." Just then he awoke from his dream, it was dawn, January 1st and he had a new mission.

It is a new dawn and I wish you the best of the New Year. Regardless of what devastating blows the last 12 or 24 months have dealt you, it is a chance to reset (I don’t mean hollow resolutions and platitudes) to wipe the slate clean, breathe deeply and set realistic professional and personal goals. 

Also, it is a chance to detox, clear the guts and the sinus and forgive ourselves of past hurts or betrayals and firmly embrace the future with optimism and faith. The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord, searching all the inward parts of the belly, according to King Solomon in the book of Proverbs. We will not ignite any fire in our bellies until we relight our candles. Then we will be able to fire our spirits and generate sufficient jet fuel to power our goals and plans for the New Year.

In the book, Melchizedek and the Mystery of Fire, author Manly P. Hall noted that there are three fires. The fire of divinity, the fire of humanity, and the fire of the demons. These three fires are enshrined within the nature of man and he has the power to determine which fire dominates. This is highlighted in the story of the candle that decides to dance in the rain because it had been hurt, passed over like a Jewish holiday and treated unkindly by others in its recent past.

Long time ago in Candleland, there was a BLACK candle. Unfairly treated and reviled by others for its difference, it endured the difficulties and grew one day at a time till it became the KingKandle. The KingKandle is the candle whose wick bears the fountain of illumination. By the accident of its creation and chance, and unbeknownst to it, because it was always trodden down under, its wick became connected to a shield volcano in the Great Hill that supplied it with perpetual heat, spark and fire (knowledge, understanding, wisdom).

As long as it was grounded and connected to the volcano, its fire will never be extinguished, its blackness and difference derived from the volcanic elements in its constitution. It had grown to become a candle of great size and stature attracting the admiration and respect of all other candles. Over time, the other candles pleaded with the KingKandle to light them up but it would not hear of it, the memories of the past constantly replaying in its mind like a broken record. It claimed to be the representative of the Night Sun, it would neither share the spotlight nor its luminescence with another candle.

One bizarre night, as thunderclaps and lightning bolts announced the arrival of torrential downpours, the KingKandle decided to play outside. He felt it was in order, as the alter ego of the Sun at night. By the time the night was over, neither the head nor the candle were ever seen again, a violent Tornado saw to it. Things fell apart, the center crumbled and the other candles could not venture out of their holes. Perpetual darkness ruled over Candleland.

Moral of the story is that we all are candles and a candle loses nothing if it lights other candles. The strongest darkness in the world cannot extinguish the weakest flicker of a single candle. Many people have been out of work over the last two years with consultants, experienced professionals and specialist all fair game and easy picks. However, the worst hit have to be the loyal company staffs who suddenly woke up and sniffed the coffee of reality. Realization is both liberating and confounding with the latter being the short end of the stick. They realized that they had been conned, job security only existed in places where the sun does not shine. Forget social security or homeland security, the only true security in this life is employability - by keeping one’s fire burning, investing in one’s self development and acquiring new skills (Target 26: a new skill every other week of the year).

It is okay to feel passed over (for lack of a more elegant expression) betrayed by an institution / company one has slaved and labored for over many decades. Others may feel used, misused and dumped despite the corporate lip-service that the people are the company’s "most treasured assets". Abandoned, is the word that describes the situation of some others when trusted associates have let them down, back to back, on and on. One can therefore understand any tendency to exhibit KingKandle's antics and resort to drinking a wormwood tea sweetened with quinine. However, Mahatma Ghandi cautions that an eye for an eye can only make the world blind (darkness, the absence of light). To such people, I will also remind them it is better to light a candle than curse the darkness.

A candle does not have to give anything of itself in order to light another: the wick doesn't get shorter, the wax remains constant, and the flame remains hot. If you are "on fire" and inspire someone else to be "on fire," you've lost nothing. If their flame goes out, yours will not. If yours goes out, the chances of getting it lit back again is greater because iron sharpens iron and after several rubs between a wet and dry stone, sparks and fire will ignite.

Lighting more candles involves spending oneself to make the economy of another thrive. Making one’s presence, gesture and thoughts the answer to another’s prayer. Ensuring that those who come to us looking down, leave us looking up. It means deliberately responding to others with kindness.  

Life happens and when you hit a rough patch, the candles you've lit may aid your journeys and if they don’t reciprocate your gesture, you would have lit so many candles and created a SYSTEM that sustains its own that your chances of slipping and fatally falling is significantly reduced. Basically, if you are kick'n tush and take'n names - inspire someone else so that they too can rock out this year. The hallmark of a great candle is that it is consumed with burning so that it can pour of its self to make other candles burn bright. I aspire to do just that this year, do you?

Comments? Thoughts? Contributions? ...... All welcome.

Attribution

Dark Candle: https://www.inspirationalstories.com/0/81.html