How beautiful!

"Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened." Buddha

I came across that quote today and I read it and went on to read a few others, but then I came back to this one. It is pretty impressive. Lighting a thousand candles from one, will not shorten that ones life. Wow, that is profound!

To me that says that we are like candles, what we give of ourselves to light another's path or just to share our light, means that we won't be losing anything. And if we do it in the mindset that we won't lose anything of ourselves, maybe more people will be willing to put themselves out there. I know that people fear that if "I give to much away, I will have nothing left for myself." But if we look to Buddha's statement we will see that is not true.

And the way he phrases it makes our giving totally selfless. We are doing it because it is needed, not because we are getting something back. It doesn't say the more candles you light the longer your candle will last. That puts a kind of a selfish twist on it. We'll do it because we'll get something out of it.

I, myself, have found that when I give and expect nothing back in return, I usually do get something back, if nothing more than a feeling of pride in myself for helping another.

I fully believe that the more we put out there, it truly won't take away from what we already have.

So those of you who fear 'losing yourself' know that won't happen. Go forward with the knowledge that helping others won't take away from you, do it with an open and selfless heart.

There are many of us that are so lucky that spreading some of the sunshine - or candle light - that we have in our lives will brighten someone else's world.

So please go forth with your candle and light as many others as you can find.