Discover Fire Again

Today is going to cost you one day of your life. It is an opportunity to invent yourself. Consider this day as special. You can waste it by doing the same old things in the same old ways. Or you can use it to turn your life around for the better. Tomorrow is a whole other adventure. Focus on today, because it will soon be gone forever. Try to leave something behind today, something good.

Notice the earth today. Walk on it barefoot. Notice the wind as it plays with your hair. Notice the people and the animals. Feel the sun on your bare skin.

Help someone who may ask you. Stand up for the fool. Give yourself away, and make your day a poem of love and generosity.

If you happen to be alive today, recognize one thing. Your mission is not complete.

This is an important day. Actually, there is no such thing as an unimportant one.

You do not have to travel to wonder at the height of a mountain, you do not have to stand before the ocean and admire the huge waves, you do not have to marvel at the course of a long river, and you do not have to look up at the marvels of humankind or nature to get the most out of this day, you have only to look at yourself in the mirror and recognize that you are the true beauty and miracle of life.

Will you be a brilliant blaze, rather than a mere spark? Will you go through this day like a superb meteor, every atom of your being in a magnificent glow? Will you be alive, or merely exist? Will you waste this day or use your time?

Live purely. Spend a moment of quiet and contemplate the beauty around you. Do your work with mastery. Come out from behind the clouds and shine upon the world.

Do not let this day express an unlived life. Do not be afraid of falling, but choose to inhabit this precious day with courage. Allow the living of it to open you, to make you less afraid, to make you more accessible, to loosen the hard feelings. Think of yourself as a wing, a torch, a promise. Risk your significance, live, blossom, go forth and win.

Let the world rejoice at your presence. Find those who have failed to flourish and whisper in their ear, "grow, grow."

Perhaps on this day, for the second time in the history of the world, you shall discover fire.

As Mahatma Ghandi once said, "You must be the change you wish to see in the world."