Reunited with the Flame

When I first learned about the candle exercise, I didn’t exactly believe its promises. But I soon came to learn that it kept up its end of the bargain, and then some.

For ten minutes daily, I would concentrate on a flame, conducting a type of open-eye meditation. I was doing it mainly because it was assigned to me in a course I was taking; unbeknownst by me, the results would prove to be magnificent.

Before engaging in the practice, I constantly felt scattered. Especially with the nature of my job, things just never seem to be done. I would be working and working and look up at the clock only to realize I’d run short of time and would have to continue the task at a later time, which was frustrating, to say the least. However, after being faithful in the candle meditation practice, I started to realize I’d be working and working and look up at the clock and realize, after finishing a task, that I still had extra time! How could this be?!

I began to realize this more frequently, until finally, I couldn’t deny the connection: by being an active participant in the candle meditation exercise, I was actually creating more time in my day, so to speak. In being fully present in the task, in being able to put my whole self into it, truly concentrated, I found that I could complete undertakings more quickly, more efficiently.

When I’d decided to discontinue the course I’d been taking, the one thing I truly regretted was that I’d ceased this priceless practice, as well, and even though I thought of The Candle often, especially as I started to realize I’d once again become scattered and was not utilizing my time and energy to the fullest, I still did not muster-up the discipline to bring this practice back into my life…

Until today.

Today, after practicing yoga, I’d begun to meditate, and something kept calling me to light a candle and to perform a candle meditation, so I did.

I was reunited with the flame; the mysterious flame I’d once built a relationship with, the flame who had remained loyal to me and to my efforts in my daily routines, the flame that I’d abandoned for unknown reasons.

Meditating on the flame, today, not only rekindled waning embers, sparking much-needed rejuvenation within me, yet it also instilled a sense of hope, a sense of empowerment.

Today, I was reunited with the flame, and I hope we never part ways again.