Breathing Space to Burn Bright

Fire burns
because of the gaps
between the logs.
When logs
like duties
are packed in
too tightly,
the fire
flickers, fizzles,
smothers and extinguishes.
Breathing space is needed
for our passions and purpose
to warm and flare and blaze.
We all need margins
and spaces
in order to decipher
paragraphs and words.
We need to not be
too tightly fitted
so that our
words and fires
and efforts
don’t ignite.
Yes, we are the light
of the world,
but we need room for that
as well as oxygen.
New logs
will occasionally
need to be added,
to keep the flames leaping,
but not too many or too fast.
Defend the pauses
for breathing,
resting, fanning,
singing, and circulation.
A bonfire kindled
from the fewest logs,
craftily aired,
burns brightest.
Make sure you are not
building a life
so crammed full
that it will be unreadable,
and only smolder and go out.

by Polly Castor
2/17/2020