Fire.

There's fire in front of me.

Couple of wood stacks burning together.

I sit there, watching from a distance.
I get up, pick up a few more wood sticks and throw in there.
The fire hungrily hogs down the sticks.
I again get up, throw in a few drops of fuel.
The fire aggressively erupts. Selfishly taking in the fuel.

I go back and sit where I was sitting.
I watch.
The fire now looks bigger. Brighter. Angrier.
Somehow peaceful because its there. Its burning. It exists.

I get up again.
I pick the bucket of water. I throw it on the fire.
The fire leaps forth. Attacks. Anguished. Hurt. It burns like never before.
I throw in another bucket of water.
This time, it gets worse. In its attempt to survive, it fights.

Each flame seems to battle with thousand water droplets. It looks back, angrily. As if asking me, how could I.

It fights. It battles. It continues stubbornly while I continue stubbornly to throw water.

It plays well, with each weakening flame, it tries even harder. Even more aggressively. Until eventually it loses its battle. It dies into ashes.

And then comes the smoke. Lingering around in the air, as if still stating that it exists. As if still somehow trying to 'remain'.

Until well, even the smoke dies. And there remains no fire.

Each day, each moment, each second there is a fire within us. Our mind. Our ego. Our long stream of unstoppable thoughts that talk to us throughout the day. That tiny little voice in the brain that nobody hears except us.

Its fire. And we, succumb to its comfort. And just when we think its weakening, we give it life. We add fuel by paying attention. We add fuel by plucking the past, the future. We add fuel by doubting the Present. We add fuel. Because we have been accustomed to the fire's presence.

And just when the wonders of pure water, magic of the Present splashes water over the flame, it reacts aggressively.  Painfully our thoughts,  our ego fights back to ensure survival. It somehow doesn't want to admit defeat to the fact that there is nothing wrong with Here, Now.

All along,  each moment, He lays before us a stream, a river, a sea of Time. of Now. He doesn't want us to find Him in past. He doesn't want us to find Him in future. Perhaps He wants us to explore His depth in the Blessings of this very moment.

All along, the Healer of healers gives us ways to Heal. While we keep focusing on the comforts of painful fire, He tries liberating us to the Joys of Now.

He liberates. we confine.
He eases the pain. we create the fire of pain.
He Heals. we still stay wounded.
He comforts. Somehow, we still find the uncomfortable fire of agony within..more comfortable.

There's fire in front of me. Of my thoughts. My ego. My past. My future fears. And I choose to extinguish it by Trusting His Present. I choose to Know Him, not through the brain that gives past and future worries

but through the yearning of the Heart seeking its own kind of brain.