Simple Distraction

I watched candles burn today. I watched them melt, pool, melt again, pool over hardened wax that had previously spilled onto the table cloth. I watched, thinking all the while, how like life that is. Events occur, melting you with heartache, pooling over solid scars left from earlier bouts of pain. Events occur, melting you with joy, pooling over solid foundations of previous celebrations, moments of thanksgiving. Daily monotony occurs, melting you with boredom, pooling over your routine, hardening again and again over the sameness that invades daily life. Life is constant melting, re-hardening, shaping into forms that we cannot predict. I saw how one candle would melt steadily, but by itself made no new shapes. It slowly melted, wax disappearing tiny amounts at a time until there was little left. A wick. An empty metal tray. Closed off, alone, and all by itself. But four small candles next to each other burned and overflowed onto each others' wax, until you could hardly tell where one candle ended and another began. Thats how life should be, melting over with each others' hurts and joys. Melting away each others' doldrums. Using our lights to help melt and reshape each other for better.