Little Flame (Poem)

I wanted to re-post a poem I wrote last spring. Enjoy!

I have a little flame

At the center of my heart

I know how it got there

God was the very start

+ + +

One little flame

In a vast dark place

One little smile

That won't be displaced

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Light a flame beside me

Hence there are two

It's now a little brighter

We know what to do

+ + +

It could be a smile

Or a helping hand

All the different ways

As countless as sand

+ + +

Pass on a kindness

Or uplifting word

Light another flame

Against this dark world

+ + +

Like little ripples

On the surface of a pond

Little flames alight

When the heart is fond

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Ever-widening circles

Spread the Light and Love

As our little flames

Reflect the One Above

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Further and further

Light this shining ball!

One little flame

Can encompass us all

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When the darkness comes

To blow our flames out

There is one thing that

It hasn't figured out

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Within each heart

A little flame is found

And with a some effort

We can send it back around!

- ESA

PS: Feel free to copy, repost or share freely, provided you do not receive funds in doing so.

This Little Light

In my fortune cookie today, my fortune read "Your individuality provides a light for others." I was originally going to type, "Let that light shine!" and just post the lyrics to "This Little Light of Mine." But I think there is something else to be said here.

While individuality can provide a light for others, it is also individuals who can take the feeble light they find in others and help that person's light shine as well. While the call of the spotlight is strong, it is oft the nobler act to take another's hand, and raise their light up, letting that light shine supported by the strength of your own light.

Look around you today. Who around you, in real life or online, has a wonderful message? Did you take that message, add your light to it and hold it up as your own? Or did you take the person who had that message and hold up that person to shine supported by the strength of your own light?

Or did you smile, acknowledge within your own head and heart that the message was good and simply walk away, taking your light away, leaving the other light to flicker and go out when buffeted by the wind?

It's true, we all have a little light to shine. But instead of holding up our own light, let us hold up the light of others. In doing so, our own becomes part of an even Greater Light. Without this Light, none of us would have the little light we do. And in the act of holding another's light up, our own light is supported by the Greater Light.

Forget my own little light, let the Greater Light shine!!!!

- ESA