All of us go through phases of total noise in our brain – hundreds of thoughts pulling your mind in hundreds of directions… incoherent emotions making your stomach feel ten times heavier that usual… a black hole in your very core, pulling everything tangible and intangible, threatening to implode your existence.
In a moment like this, it makes no sense to do anything. Your mind is unable to allocate resources towards any constructive activity. So… you look at something destructive. How about something that takes very little effort?
A flame.
Have you ever observed something burn? Not looked with careless disregard, but watched carefully as it ate away reality. Things that existed just moments ago vanish into nothingness, right in front of your eyes. Maybe those things meant something to you, maybe they didn’t. Subtly however, that small yellow flame reminds you of how fickle, how momentary and how fleeting everything is. The same flame that grows to become a merry bonfire, also burns through things, memories, people. In that clouded state of mind, it acts like a disconnection tool; a final act of release. Stop thinking about it, burn it away. Stop remembering all that, burn it away.
It is well behaved too, that flame. It will not keep on burning, it will not live a purposeless life. The matter will finish and with it, so will the flame. Gracefully so, if I may add. Not in a sudden flash, but gently subsiding, slowly diminshing and then fading away. Bad might have happened to you, but Bad will not stay forever, will not continue happening. A flame will come and erase Bad. Just like someday, a flame will erase you too. And me.
But until that happens, savor the merry bonfire instead.