At least a few times in your life,
If you're lucky,
You are called to change.
You stand at the edge of who you've become and you finally know that there's nowhere else to go but inside.
It's time to sit with yourself,
To become friends with the harsh voices you've been avoiding.
When you're ready to sit in the fire of change,
Its primordial spark will seek out all that's flammable,
The dry timbers that have grown stiff and brittle,
The parts of you that no longer draw water from the soil and no longer bring you the nourishment of life.
Some of the things you've clung to don't serve you on your journey anymore.
Your back and shoulders ache from the burden of dead weight you've been dragging along,
A heavy and cumbersome identity that can't keep up with where your soul wants to go.
Your suffering is your fear of letting go of the parts of yourself that have become too familiar to you.
You haven't yet seen that what you're carrying is the very kindling you need to lay down at your feet,
The kindling to create the fire that will transform you into something new,
Into something that wants to be born.
There are parts of you that are ready to burn up and burn away.
Don't turn away from the rising heat.
It's time now to sit in the fire,
To feel the intensity of the flames.
What's burning away are your past limitations and old stories of yourself.
Let them go.
This is not a rejection of the past but a deep honoring.
To feel the pain of how it hurts to let go is to honor and acknowledge how it has helped you to navigate your life up to now.
Sit in this fire.
When you allow the burning,
You begin to understand that the destruction is also a new phase of creation.
And what is disappearing is preparing itself to appear again as you,
Cleansed and born anew.
Stay here.
Feel it all until the fire goes out on its own.
This is your new beginning,
Your new life.
Give yourself the gift of time.
Allow the charred remains to cool.
Notice the new feeling of emptiness in you.
The pain of burning away is clearing space in your body for something new.
There's no need to do anything now.
Don't hurry into action.
Pay attention and savor the small sensations.
The warmth of the ground,
The dissipating smoke,
The quiet of the fire going out.
Allow yourself to dwell in your emptiness.
For in time,
Into this open space,
Revelations will come.
Let the ashes be absorbed into the ground of your being and fertilize the soft soil.
What has burned is becoming an invitation for something new to take seed,
For something pliant and supple to root into the blackened earth and spring forth.
When you're ready,
Reach into the debris and pull out a bit of charcoal.
Take it in your hand and feel its creative potential.
How this new and ancient tool enables you.
Your imagination has returned.
See how the black charcoal finds the creases and cracks in your weathered hands.
Allow yourself to be covered in soot.
You aren't afraid of the dust and the dirt anymore.
Let yourself fall in love with your own divine darkness.
As your hand begins to move across the screen of your mind,
What do you see?
What will this new life of yours look like?
You are a child again,
Free from the eyes of the world,
Free to make a mess,
And free to draw a picture of the more beautiful life you want to create.
When you sit in the pain and let it burn through you,
Relief awaits.
An ancient healing process is trying to work itself through you.
You must allow it.
Sit in the fire of change and let yourself be transformed.
