Come On Baby, Light Your Fire!
Fire. It’s one of the four classical elements; a gift from Prometheus who stole it from the Gods, and gave it to humans for their protection and as a source of creative potential.
(The Gods were NOT happy about this and sentenced Prometheus to a torturous punishment of being chained to a rock and having his liver eaten by an eagle. And as an immortal, Prometheus got to experience this as an endless daily experience. I believe this violation also gave rise to the “to do” list of modern experience — or maybe that was Sisyphus’s fault — Either way, note to self: do not anger the Gods!)
We have a rich and complex relationship with fire. Both destructive and creative, fire burns, protects, and transforms. Fire represents our energy, assertiveness, passion, enthusiasm, courage, ferocity, desire, anger, intensity, and wildness. It is our initiative, our will to action, and the drive to keep going. Our creative force.
And as every cub scout knows, to create a fire you need three things: combustible fuel, heat or spark, and air. Or in creative equivalents: available focused energy, ways to create a spark of an idea, abundant space and inspiration.
Are any of these fire scenarios sounding the alarm for you?
One Hat At A Time momentum cards. Artwork by Marion Nixon.
Fire! Fire! Fire! You are always on the alert, ready to call the general alarm. Grabbing your firefighter’s hat, with siren’s blaring, you run to provide a heroic response in relation to all fires, large and small. You know a lot about how fires behave. You can almost feel them getting out of control. The urgency can be very exciting, and if you get too caught up in it you might find yourself unable to distinguish between a true conflagration and a false alarm. Left unexplored, this scenario can lead to Pyromania.
Response: Seek alternatives to adrenaline, which is a powerful, and ultimately unsustainable fuel. Get curious about the root cause of all these fires. How can you shift your focus and use your talents in the service of fire prevention.
Can’t Catch a Spark. You experience real difficulty getting a good fire started. Your creative fires start to fizzle before they can really catch…leaving you spluttering in the smoke. You aren’t getting much warmth for all that work. And you feel like you are running out of matches and all of your kindling is sopping wet.
Response: Analyze your fire starting practices. Do you need more spark? Fuel? or Air/Space/Inspiration? Or a better balance of the three? What is happening at the root of your fire. Are you trying to build a fire up to fast by overloading it with fuel? Maybe the environment needs your attention? Can you make it more friendly to your fuel source and protect yourself from deluges of criticism, self invoked or otherwise.
Ready for Pyromaniacs Anonymous. You just LOVE lighting fires because fires are so exciting. You just can’t stop yourself. In fact, you like starting fires much more than you like tending them. And truth be told, you don’t give much thought to whether the fire goes out — you can always start another one, right? But take a look around. Is there damage happening in your wake? Are you burning through your fuel? It takes a lot more energy to light a fire than to keep banked coals glowing.
Response: Discover the most productive ways of using your fuel and fully centering your passion. Focus your energies and feed the fires that most feed you. Partner with some fire tenders to help keep the best fires burning. Extinguish the rest. Not all fires need to be kept burning, but untended fires can be dangerous.
Wildfire Wrangler. You have no trouble keeping your fires burning; your like your fires at edge of danger; just shy of getting out of control. And sometimes you find new fires popping up all over the place — too many to keep your eye on every one (maybe you can’t say no?). You are rushing around trying to stay on top of them. Fires this hot need constant attention and fire breaks — boundaries or they will burn out of control, and may consume you in the process.
Response: Create flexible containment for your passions, without putting the fires out. Keep the best, longest lasting fuel deep in the core of the fire. When the edges of your work get too far away for the core, pull them in. If it gets too hot, too wild, pull back to get a clearer perspective on where this fire is going, and where you want it to go. How can you direct it for the best impact. Are there ways to let your self burn freely, without burning down the house, or the neighborhood?
Burned Out. There is no flame, no fuel, no air. Perhaps you have lit one too many fires, and it got away from you; or you’ve seen too many fires suffocate and smoke, leaving black, charred scars; or maybe you have had your healthy passion get out of control and you ran out of fuel.
Response: Prepare for new growth. You’ve cleaned out the undergrowth and deadwood. Long buried seeds have cracked and are getting ready to sprout. The ash of past fires is nourishing the soil. You need time: to recover, to consider how the devastating fire happened, and to integrate it, in preparation for beginning anew. Like the ancient trees, fire can make you stronger.
Clean Burner. You have mastered the steady burn. Your creative focus is sustainable. Efficient. Purposeful. You have crafted right sized fires to accomplish your intended result. You can run on all kinds of fuel. You have a variety of ways to create spark. You give yourself lots of space; and you put yourself in the path of a steady flow of inspiration — all thoughtfully contained and directed.
Response: Pay attention now to insuring a sustainable fuel supply and increasing the efficiency of the burn. Have a containment plan for flare-ups. Consider when any particular effort has fulfilled it’s purpose and can be extinguished, using the glowing embers to start new initiatives.
What’s your favorite fire scenario? What strategies do you like to keep on hand in your “first responders” toolkit? Add a comment to share your thoughts.
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Laura Lind-Blum, the idea midwife™ uses playful strategies to help you bring your creative self into the world … without so much pushing. Laura can help you to playfully build and sustain forward movement, turn stuck places into stepping stones, and gracefully dance with the ebbs and flows of the creating process. Email Laura today and discover the joy of creating and living an unusually authentic and fulfilling life!