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Consider A Candle, Consider A Bonfire
The difference between invention and inspiration.
Consider a candle, it’s relaxing isn’t it. I find it incredibly relaxing and I don’t know a single person that would say otherwise. I’m thinking candles by the bath side, a candlelight dinner. The light that it exudes is warming, pleasing, it’s way more satisfying than a strip light in a hotel room. There are meditations in yoga that involve staring at a candle. There’s a property to it that soothes, and relaxes. Why might that be?
Perhaps it is that the candle is always constant, it fluctuates slightly; it flickers, but it won’t go out in most cases, unless there’s an extreme circumstance like you accidentally tip a load of bath water over it, or a big gust of wind happens. That slight fluctuation can help us because it mirrors a state that we feel comfortable in — the slight fluctuation, or the small steps that we all take in life. However it’s not that natural.
It’s constant because we as humans designed it that way. The invention of the candle was a very practical invention, before we could simply flick a switch and light up our homes they needed to be lit by candlelight. A big industry was developed to provide the oil to keep the candles burning constantly at night: the whaling industry.
