Let’s Light a Spark

Sometimes I get sick of talk. I’m good at talking, and I am good at listening too, but I get sick of it. Podcasts, videos, books, articles, posts, comments … there is always something else to consume and think about and discuss.

Usually, I like talk because I like knowledge. I like to learn and assimilate knowledge. But after some time, the words pile up like a heap of dry sticks.

At those times, I feel like there is only thing to do - to light a fire.

A fire needs a spark. But a spark is a not like a stick. It’s not dry and static, it is a living, dynamic thing. It needs force and light and intent. A spark is action.

To light a spark, one must strike two stones together — a stone cannot be struck against itself. We need two stones, and the spark is created in the space between.

I can’t create a spark alone. Here is all the knowledge piled up within myself, and I must share it. I have to reach out to someone else to share it.

This sharing isn’t just a passing on of knowledge — that is just the heaping up of more sticks. Words are good for sharing knowledge, but lighting the spark is something outside of the realms of language.

So we can meet and we can talk; and beyond the words, something can spark in the space between us. We have ways to describe this — like inspiration and creativity — but it’s not necessary to name it.

It is only necessary that we let it happen.

And afterwards the words come again in a rush, and that is good. It is fuel for the fire. It’s just that the spark needed a gap. In between all the activity, a moment of no-activity. Amongst the words, silence; in motion, stillness.

I can feel the spark happening.

See we’ve trained ourselves to only give attention to the finite. We’re rational; we scorn what we can’t measure. Anything else isn’t really real. ‘A spark is a glimpse of the Infinite’ is a highly unscientific thing for me to say. People are embarrassed for me.

So it’s best to leave it there— more words won’t help and maybe I’m not as good at talking as I think. Isn’t this just another article? Something else to consume and add to the dry heaps of knowledge?

Yes — but at least now I have shared it to you. Perhaps nothing will happen. But anything can happen, and that’s enough for me.