Sometimes love needs space.
What makes the fire burn strong is the balance between wood and no wood; burn and breath; presence and absence.
Too much of one and it’ll smother. Too much of the other and it’ll wane until there’s nothing left for the flames to grab. Navigate this balance mindfully and you’ll keep your fire—and love—burning strong.
Assume the fire will keep itself in order… or try to forcefully overkeep it… and it’ll die.
When you visualize the love you share with another as a fire… what do you see?
A waning, untended to, slowly collapsing fire? A huge pile of wood with a suffocating flame? Or a beautifully balanced, well ordered and maintained fire you can cozy up to at the end of a long, cold day?
Spend some time with this meditation and treat your visualized fire how you would that fire while camping at the outset of a cool, crisp evening.
Love, like fire, requires active involvement if we want to passively enjoy its emanating heat.