Shifting The Fire

About eighteen years ago my family returned home to Nantucket after a great trip to Florida. Alli and Meg were somewhere around eight and ten years old. We walked into our house late at night after some bumpy weather getting back to the island. I sent the girls upstairs and I started to look through the bundle of retrieved mail on the kitchen table.

I randomly opened one of my magazines (don't remember which one it was) to a piece about canned hunting. I did not know about canned hunting and I proceeded to read the article. Canned hunting is when animals have been raised in docile conditions and then brought somewhere and let loose to be "hunted" and killed by people who pay for this activity. Needless to say, as an animal lover, vegan, and even a competitive sports player and coach, this was just insane to me. So, I did what anyone would do at 10 p.m. at night, on a little island, fresh off a nauseating one hour plane ride, and with adorable little children getting ready to get cozy into bed....I started raging about how cowardly the hunters were....how capitalistic the canned hunting farms/ranges were, and overall started seething over the state of humanity.

I sat in the chair and was so fired up about this inhumanity.  My beautiful happy children came downstairs all ready for bed and I sent them back up with a gruff tone and angry mannerisms telling them I would be upstairs momentarily...

CUT SCENE! What the heck was I doing?! What could I possibly do about canned hunting at that hour and from that location? I sat in the chair dumbfounded by the fact that I had started ranting about canned hunting in my peaceful little Nantucket sweet home. My daughters' faces were so disappointed when I sent them back upstairs in such a snit! Seriously? I was going to let a bunch of misbehaving canned hunting stakeholders mess with my inner and outer space therefore messing with my children's inner and outer space?!

So I closed the magazine, took a deep breathe, and let it all go. There was nothing I could do in that moment to stop the canned hunting business. That was not my role nor my job nor my joy in that moment. My attention was only necessary on my family and the peaceful transition from rough travel experience to safe loving home. My incessant anger/fire was only adding anxiety and stress into my home. My children were trying to find a center in their worlds and my bonfire of rage was doing nothing for their success in that endeavor. Wow, did I learn something that night.

From that moment onward I tried to watch when I picked up a fire torch and started lighting things up, catching the world on fire with anger. Did I really need to actively put anger into a situation? What was happening around me and was fire as anger really the best contribution to the goal at hand? Fire energy is not only awesome but it is powerful and necessary. Fire energy is about passion, getting things done, and yes, anger. What type of fire was I adding into a moment, a story, an experience, or a circumstance? Would the passion of love, healing, empowerment, and joy best serve the moment more than the fire of rage, hatred, suffering from victimization, and separation from others? I learned that yes, for my Vision about life and how I wanted to engage in the world in which I actively am a part of -  YES! Fire as Passion of Love was more authentic, helpful, and in solution than out of control fire or even bonfires of intolerance, cruel words, and directed animosity towards those who do the world differently than I do. I need not agree with or support things like canned hunting, however I also do not need to add the elements of Fire as such toxic energy into and onto the planet. This harms myself and others. Anger also happens to have some kicken' addictive endorphin rush to it, however I can say from experience that the joyful energy high from love is so much better! It lasts longer, I laugh alot more, and beautiful awe inspiring things enter my human and Soul sphere when I choose to use my fire for dancing, art, music, poetry, loving, playing, and all those other passions we are given access to experiencing.

Fire energy should be burning strong and bright in each of us. It is good if we can check in and be aware of which fire energy we are working from, spewing out onto and into the unsuspecting beings in our world, and choosing to administer into the energetic mix of humanity. Consider powering up your passion fire in yourself. The world is much better served and suited for your Creative Life Force Fire energy in Action. Let it rip!!!