Thursday 6 August 2009

Little sparks can create big fires


I've been meaning to start an inspirational blog for ages. I already keep a travel blog (www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Travelling-Priestess/), but wanted to have a more general one for when I am not travelling through the spiritual world, to share the things that inspire me or simply make me think and smile on a daily basis.


The final push I needed to set this blog up was a lovely Dutch woman I met at this year's Goddess Conference (http://www.goddessconference.com/) in Glastonbury. The Conference's theme this year was 'Celebrating the Sun Fire Goddess', and featured many exciting and amazing people and activities, such as fire dances, fire songs, fire rituals, and fire walks.

I was working at the Conference as a Hearth Priestess, and as part of my job, I facilitated 'hearth meetings', in which we discussed the things that came up for us during the Conference. The meeting just before the Fire Walk (on which participants were to walk barefoot across hot coals) was highly charged, as people expressed their fears and blocks that surrounded their creativity and life in general. When it was my turn to share, I said that I would like to have more focus in my life. Because I am so interested in many different things, I tend to spark many small fires all around the globe, rather than one big fire. I've often thought that if I concentrated on one or two things at the time, I could move mountains, rather than dispersing my energy in all those little fires. So I said that my intention was commitment to one big fire.


After the meeting, the aforementioned lovely Dutch lady came up to me and told me a little story, which her father had once shared with her. 'Imagine that there is a lighthouse', he said, 'a lighthouse which generates all of the world's power. The power from this lighthouse goes to all lightbulbs, from the biggest to the smallest, and also to the tiniest Christmas lights. The power that runs through the lights is the same, it is just the medium through which the power shines that is different.' She paused. 'The 100 watt lightbulb's job is to illuminate a whole room, whereas the Christmas light's job is to be lovely and to warm people's hearts. Do you think that the Christmas light says 'oh, I should be like the big lightbulb and illuminate a whole room?' Do you think other people say to the Christmas light 'oh, you should be bigger and make more light'? Don't you think that the Christmas light's job is just as important as that of the 100 watt lightbulb?'


I was very moved when I heard this story. This Dutch lady's father had made a very important point. I often think that I have to do more, more, more all the time, and that nothing is ever enough. This little story made me pause and ask myself: aren't the small fires, the sparks of inspiration, just as valid, just as important, as the big fires? As long as we come from the heart and our intentions are pure, who can tell what the effects of our actions, no matter how small or large, are?


I cherished this heart-warming story and want to share it here with all of you around the hearth of my newest creative fire.



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