I love me some smelly candles. They’re lit in our house 365 days a year. Tobacco Sage? Yep. Salted Driftwood? Yep. Wild Cedarwood? Yep. You name it. Except patchouli… that’s disgusting. It’s like the licorice of smells. But they don’t have to be smelly, they can just be regular candles as well. It’s their seminal glow in an electric world that draws me in. Their primitive amber dance out of the corner of your eye. An elemental reminder of something simple but mysterious and we have the ability to create this magic illumination.
Maybe it’s the ceremony of lighting a candle as well. You have to stop, find a match/lighter, go over to the candle and conjure it’s mysterious inception. Instead of screaming “Alexa turn on the lights and… order toilet paper!” There’s an intentionality behind it. An elementary commitment to something in your life. It’s the smallest of ceremonies that can affect us. That can override the most titanic of conditioning and overall shittiest of days.
Everything is important and connected. Do you make your bed when you get up? No? Well, it’s time to start (grow up). The most paltry of tasks carrying such a wallop! This ceremony is a commitment to yourself to take care of … you. To keep your environment somewhat organized and respected. Everything is connected and if you take care of this “outer environment” that means you’ve committed, like it or not, to take care of the “inner environment” too.
These frivolous appearing rites of self service can change your freaking life. Much like “wax on” and “wax off”, seemingly inconsequential, ended up saving Daniel LaRusso’s life. Screw you, Johnny Lawrence! (fists in the air) A basic ceremony to take care of the person in the mirror. Commitment to action and discipline to ceremony. Can you practice serving yourself? As if you were the only you you’ve got;) Make your bed. Light a candle and see what happens.
