As I was reading this latest installment in the arc, I came upon a quote that really struck me.
The world we see is smoke… and it’s all the evidence we need to know the flames are real.
At first I thought about the nature of our perceived reality, that it might be just illusion, nothing but smoke and mirrors. There are spiritual traditions out there that posit this belief. But then I started thinking about the flames, and my interpretation of this quote broadened.
Flame is a symbol of change, of metamorphosis, of the purging of the old to make way for the new. Those of us living in a period of change are not able to see the change directly; we only see the residual effects, the smoke, letting us know that something unseen is occurring. I sense that we are in a stage of transition in our world, and that the fires of change are stoked and spreading. Everything that we see going on around us—all the crazy current events, all the powerful environmental and social upheavals—these are just the smoke signals letting us know that change is underway.
We like to think that we are powerful, that we have the ability to change the world around us and alter events. But do we really have that power? By the time we become aware of changes, they have usually already occurred. We only experience the smoke and ash of change. Sometimes we play a part, but are we conscious of that part that we play? I wonder.
Stuff Jeff Reads 
We can change our attitudes which, I think, ripples outward. So in that sense we can be the change.
Agreed!!
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Fascinating, as always. We may participate in the earlier influence of changes that ripple unseen before the ‘smoke signals’ become evident. And I wonder if the choices we make or perceptions we have when we engage with the change-waves strengthens certain potential outcome streams? (Thus we’d continue to influence some change, which is always happening seen or unseen.) Hmmm. Another worthy reflection. 🙂 Thank you Jeff! ~ Cheers, Jamie
Oh, most definitely our perceptions affect the currents of change that we experience. Physics has proven the influence of consciousness on matter at the subatomic level. Also, chaos theory posits that the small ripples we make have large scale effects later on (butterfly effect). Thanks for another thoughtful comment. Best — Jeff