A Single Candle

 

I used to believe

the world would change

when enough people

became kinder.

Then I realized

the world has always changed

one heart at a time.

So I stopped waiting.

I stopped asking

why people were impatient,

why they judged,

why they hurried past,

why they forgot

that every stranger

is carrying an invisible story.

Instead,

I began asking

a different question.

Am I becoming

the person

I want everyone else to be?

Am I being

the person

I wish everyone else would be?

Not perfect.

Just present.

Not louder.

Just gentler.

Not changing the world

by force.

but changing

the small piece of it

that passes through my hands.

Because...

A single candle

doesn't eliminate the darkness.

It simply refuses

to become part of it.

Perhaps that's enough.

Perhaps that's always been enough.

Not to change everyone.

but to become someone

who makes changing

seem possible.

To become

the person

you want everyone else to be.

Because every life

can kindle another.

One candle

lights the next,

never losing

its own flame.

And one day,

someone will look

across the darkness

and wonder

when the sunrise began.