We all have different views when looking upon a fire, one would probably be the most common one—fear. Who wouldn’t be when at a young age we were always told to stay away from playing fire, and not to mention getting scolded by our mothers whenever we put a hold of something that could ignite a fire and even nearing a stove would earn us an earful from them. Since then, it has built its image to be a symbol of “danger”.
Do fires scream danger?
This photo was taken last October 26, 2023, two days before the feast of our humble barangay in honor of our patron Our Lady of Perpetual Help. A group of fire dancers from the city went to showcase their incredible talent when it comes to playing with fire, and just a disclaimer to you guys that they were all professionals, rest assured that no living being was harmed during their show for they knew how to handle those fires they carry around. From there, I witnessed how everyone was in awe of their performance, I assumed people wanted more of it but with the limited allotted time to be able to give way to the actual program they were only given the chance to perform once. How people reacted and gave feedback on what they did, it seems to me that fire is not that bad to play at all. All it takes is more practice I suppose. Basing on the people’s screams of praise, and astounding applauses, especially the children, I saw how it gives amusement as it entertains, how it gives joy to someone probably having a bad day, and not to forget how it gives off strong light to a dark room. Seems like it’s not that bad at all, it just depends on how we humans handle a situation with fire.
Burning in flames
Upon watching the fire dancing in the air, I was slowly brought into a whirlpool of emotions, never thought that in just that moment I would be able to reflect on some things in life, proving once again that I am a very sentimental person. I have realized that playing with fire doesn’t have to be that scary, all it takes is a brave soul who knows what they are doing, someone who knows what they want in life, someone with a burning flame of passion in their heart ready to take on the challenge regardless of whatever possible consequences there would be.
Fiery Emotions
I also want to talk about this as well, how fire also represents emotions. With how movies and stories use it as a symbol of a dark aura or someone’s mood and level of anger. I remember the movie from Disney’s Pixar called “Inside Out” which shows the different emotions of one human being—from Joy, Sadness, Fear, Disgust, and of course the flaming red, Anger. It's funny to say that I would often imagine whenever I’m about to get mad that maybe Anger was controlling my mind for a moment. But then I realized that we have options, we get to choose who from the five characters we would like to be handling the situation. We can choose not to play with fire when we know we might regret what comes out of our mouths, or we can choose to let our emotions fire up in a controllable state just to give off some steam.
You see, it’s bound to be our choice how to play it anyway.
Scared to play with fire?
I do get scared sometimes, but I always keep in mind that in life, there are circumstances in which we do have to play with fire, not literally, but those desires ignited in our hearts that burn like a blazing fire are the ones that push us through to take risks just to prove something, to give something, and to be something one would remember.
Still scared? That’s okay, one trick I always tell myself to overcome the fear of doing something is to do it afraid. Read that again.
