I have always been drawn to fire, and I realized this at a fairly young age. We lived in a rural area next door to my grandparents. One afternoon, my grandfather raked leaves into a pile and started a fire. It was the smoldering smoke that slowly curled up from his backyard that got my attention. I was 6 or 7 years old. I went to investigate, and was warned, of course, to stand back and not get too close to the fire. 

I was immediately fascinated by the fire, and I stood there with him for a couple of hours just watching, mesmerized by the flames.

I now see fire as the manifestation of the energy that is at work in us and all of the world around us all of the time. I see it as one of the aspects of life that mirrors itself in our human experience. Taking cues from my childhood experience, this is what I see.

Fire sparkles with heat and light. When we find ourselves drawn to something or someone, when we feel ourselves being inspired, when we have an inexplicable interest in a thing, this is fire at work in us, lighting a way ahead and sustaining us with the necessary energy. Following these energies that rise up in us, I believe, opens the door to the work of Spirit in us and through us. 

Fire consumes and transforms. These attractions or passions or inspirations do not show up in us as sideshows for us to watch and to entertain us. They require our engagement. We are being invited into something new and creative. As we do engage, even if timidly, these energies will begin to consume who we thought we were and transform us into who we are becoming. This is, I believe, how Spirit leads us on our journey. 

Fire is tricky. There’s a side to this inner, creative, passionate energy that can be playful and even dangerous. If we become complacent, if we think that this is something we completely understand, if we take it for granted, it will pop up in ways and forms that we were not expecting, and it may do this even if we are giving it our full attention. Creativity, by its very nature, takes us to unexpected places. Fire in us is like that. 

Fire may get out of control. This aspect of fire can be scary. I like to be in control and to think that I am always in control. I’ve engaged with fire enough to know that it is not always under my control. And, when we are following our passions, following inner creativity rising up within, at some point what is needed is our surrender. This is how change and transformation take place. We give in to the process. 

What has our attention today? To where are we being drawn? Where are we feeling the spark, the light, the inspiration, the motivation? That is fire calling.

~Robert Patrick