Small Fires Happen

"Small fires happen."

When my friend was talking about things I cook up, she meant figuratively. I also meant it figuratively when I said "as long as I don't burn down the kitchen!" And we laughed. She probably didn't know it, but her reply about small fires served as words of encouragement. Small fires do happen.

I have been playing with my color pencils. Fire is hard to capture.

Recently, I have seen quite a few folks around me who are clearly struggling with where they are in their life. I struggle with it, too, sometimes. We thought we would be somewhere else, doing something else, living someplace else. We made choices that brought us here and sometimes we feel like here is not where we want to be. And when small fires happen, it feels like the end of the world. The small fires feel like they engulf us because we fuel them with our own doubts. The sooner we accept that these small fires happen, the sooner we can put them out and move along.

I think it is important to keep "cooking things up." The more often you try things in the kitchen of life, the more often you are going to start small fires. The more often you start small fires, the better equipped you will become to deal with them. The better equipped you are to deal with life's small fires, the more you can experiment in the kitchen. Maybe this is not the best example of life's cycles, but it is what I have been pondering.

I never want to stop trying. I never want to get so caught up with the "oh, I wish I had" that I forget I am still alive and opportunity is waiting for me. So here is to today's small fires! May you appreciate them in the moment and later be able to see how they helped shaped your future.