“It is better to light one small candle them to curse the darkness.” Confucius

When one inflames a candle, an aura of light shines beyond the space it occupies. Carrying into the darkness billowing beyond the blackness, engulfing the dankness and spreading its goodness. In this way an individual brings forth an illumination to mankind when they endeavor in helping another achieve beyond their means.

For to bring about change in another, it requires an ignition of their soul to forge a new way. People have been creatures of habit since time immortal, we will cling to despair with that having been the culmination of our experiences. For without learning something new and conditioning ourselves to it, we do what we have done the most. We have to change our way of thinking to elicit an alteration in our behavior.

The hardwiring of the brain keeps our functioning within a form of automation, evolution has given us a mechanism to cope with the every day tasks. We find in our habits a familiar way of engaging life with our laborious repetitious actions. In this fashion we find a form of meditation, a massage of the familiar to feel comfort with the rigors of existence. By doing so we can delude ourselves into believing life to be static, by which we hold onto old ways as means to pacify.

The lighting of the wick within the tranquillized soul we ignite an imagination to initiate a new way forward. A way out of the chains that bind their souls, we give them the key to unlock their anguish and help them change what ails them. We spread our light into their darkness to evoke that which envelops the tormented spirit with sparks that spread like wildfire.

We tell a soldier or veteran of war “welcome home” because the battle never leaves us, as we return from conflict everyday of our lives. This is my story and struggle with PTSD, it affects every aspect of my life. I want people to know what a combat veteran goes through after the media and people forget.