The Moth and the Flame

Have you ever watched a moth flying toward a light?

It doesn’t hesitate. It doesn’t question. It throws itself forward, over and over, hitting the glass, wings frantic. It craves the light. Needs it.

Before electricity, moths would chase fire ~ an unforgiving, primal force. Get too close, and you burn. But the moth doesn’t understand. It is drawn to the flame without knowing why, just as we are drawn to validation, to being seen, to being chosen.

How many of us are chasing false light? Fame, views, likes. Desire. Power. We throw ourselves toward it, hoping it will fill something, but it never quite does. And if we dare get too close ~ if we taste that power ~ we risk losing ourselves entirely.

But the flame… The flame does not chase. It does not plead. It does not apologise when something burns in its heat. The flame simply exists. It attracts because it is whole.

The work is not to kill the moth inside us. It is to love it. To understand its hunger. To see where it has been leading us astray and redirect it toward the true light ~ the moon, our intuition, our inner knowing. The moon has always guided the moth. It’s only when artificial lights appear that it gets confused, disoriented, lost.

And the flame? That fire within us? It must be tended. Fed. Cared for. Because the brighter we burn, the less we seek.

This is the story of the Moth and the Flame. The story of losing ourselves to longing ~ and calling ourselves home.

picture found on Pinterest