On love, candles, and what cannot be extinguished no matter how far you've traveled
Key Takeaways
Self-preoccupation diminishes what connection restores.
Light amplifies light through connection when chosen.
Micro Prompt
A candle doesn't change before it lights another. It simply expresses its essence—light and fire—and its nature does the rest. This week, consider what it would mean to do the same.
Three Things to Consider
💭 Idea: Light a candle this week and then use it to light another. Watch what happens to the first flame. Nothing is lost or diminished. Now think of one person in your life who has given something of themselves to you without being diminished by the giving. What they offered is not the exception. It is the nature of light, and it is the nature of us.
Read: Thomas Merton, "The Louisville Vision" from Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander. Merton standing on a street corner, is suddenly overwhelmed with love for every stranger around him. He realized what he mistook for separateness was merely an illusion. An exemplary description plaud
of interconnection in modern spiritual writing.
🎬 Watch: "The Most Astounding Fact" with Neil deGrasse Tyson (3:33). A candle can light a hundred candles without losing any of its flame. Turns out, the universe works the same way. We are the candles lit by its flame.
Closing Thought
A candle that lights another does not diminish its light, it multiplies it. The light in us grows and multiplies when we turn toward one another. But, our light can only spread if we are willing to point towards each other.
With love & light,
John Moos, MD
Soul Surgeon