Fire
in the Belly
“Fire in
the belly: The emotional stamina and vigor, passion, or inner drive
to achieve something, to take action, etc.”
Wiktionary
The notion of fire in the
belly comes up a lot for me lately. Americans are so worn out by our divisions that we seem to have extinguished the fire in our bellies and
replaced it with simple rage. To me there is an enormous difference.
To say one has fire in the belly means that they are willing to
persevere through difficulties, even failure. It means that one does
not give up trying even though the odds seem stacked against them.
Fire in the belly is a positive emotion, leading to creativity and
innovation. Rage, on the other hand, is simply destructive.
There is another
difference; fire in the belly is a spirit-driven emotion. It
typically sparks into flame when our desires, ambitions and the needs
of our soul are in alignment. When we invest our time and energy in
soulful acts, that is, in acts that are beneficial to us and to the
fabric of our society, acts that bring shared goodwill to our fellow
humans, and are driven by our heart's desire, we are likely to feel
fired-up even when we are physically tired. In other words, fire in
the belly comes from a place of love.
There is a picture
circulating on the internet of a woman at a political rally who is
raging at something or someone. Her teeth are bared, her face is
scarlet, and she has angry, angry eyes. Rage is not a creative
emotion. Very little will come from it except violence. Rage is not
useful, and it does not represent an alignment of body, soul and
spirit.
We can make neither
ourselves nor our world better by raging at one another. But we can
by tending the fire in our bellies. Stoke its coals into a cook fire,
not a wildfire, and make something tantalizingly delicious. If we can
do that with love and gratitude, if we can shut out the voices of
hate and rage, including our own, God knows what good might come of
it. Love alone is the most powerful force in the universe.
In the Spirit,
Jane
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