Relationships : A Flickering Flame

Our efforts to create an impact, initiate a positive change, be successful seems to have an intrinsic drawback. It is actually hard for one to realize the influence, and can be easily over shadowed by our desire to celebrate the self. It is important to realize how every relationship we cherish, no matter how strong the emotion is, resembles the delicate subtlety of a flickering flame. In this post, I wish to discuss how we need to balance our emotions, accommodate enough space for critical emotions, even during our time of celebration.

The interesting feature of a diya is when we ignite it, we tend to protect it, give the needed care for a while and then we set it on its own. Then, we see the flame flicker in the gentle breeze, slowly settling into an isolated existence. After a while, if we try to push ourselves to protect it, we probably will be the reason for it to die down, or it will die a natural death. The reason I wanted to discuss this observation was to highlight the analogy between a diya and any emotion we share with our family or friends. We tend to appreciate and nurture the emotion at the start, and when we slowly expose it, the emotion flickers, like a flame seeking our attention to understand its gentle existence. If we choose to ignore it, and let it glow on its own strength, then it is reason enough for it to reach a stage of survival without attention dying a natural death. If we wish to protect the flame at a later stage, we carry a risk of putting it to rest ourselves. It is important that we understand this subtle reality and appreciate every emotion we share, no matter how strong it is... because its important to realize that there is not enough darkness in all the world to put out the light of even one small flame, lets value it!