The Spark of Life

I am not a category, a contour, a definition or a word. I am the spark that shines invisibly and keeps me alive. I am more than meets the eye, as everything in this universe: I am energy and consciousness. I am the essence beyond a shell. I decide who I can become.

I am universal and unique at the same time. I didn't choose to be born undefined, but I chose to be born again to redefine who I am, because I am beyond the skin, beyond impressions. I'm probably capable to become even more than I am aware of. I know that I am alive, even more now, after having been born again. Indescribably more. And what is the spark that makes someone feel alive?

It's not just breathing and the functioning of internal organs or the brain: it's something more that makes living creatures feel alive. The energy, the movement of the atoms, the bright awareness and enjoyment of being alive, that is unmeasurable. It's beyond the skin, the bones, the muscles, the electric impulses or the rhythm of the blood flowing through the veins. It's something that cannot be caught in a jar and examined. It transcends the boundaries of the material world. It is yet unknown. However, every living being knows that spark and feels it most intensely when life is bright and inspiring.

The first time I ever learned how to fly was when I dared to jump from a plane - with a parachute. I was fifteen years old and I had no doubt I would have the courage to find out what it was like to fly in the sky. I guess that was when I started to believe in myself as an endless source of unimaginable power to achieve whatever I believed - that I could do more than I knew about myself. I understood I could overcome any fears, any limits and be free, away from the earth, from the restrictions of reality, from the uncertainties or confusions.

I was attracted to the idea of flying also for this freedom. In the sky everything is clear, open, endless, enlightened by height and speed. It is a thrilling exhilaration that makes one feel more alive. Just like Icarus, the enthusiasm for being up there is similar to the fascination of being closer to the sun, to light and liberation of limits. In that moment when you are free, when you float suspended at a high distance, hundreds of meters above the earth, the freedom is absolute, the space eternal, the happiness complete, the detachment from limits undeniable. The feeling is irreplaceable, and even if you return to the ground, nothing can dissipate the confidence, the serenity, the miraculous wonder of the flight; nobody can ever take that moment of freedom away from you. And then you want to go back up, to experience it again.

I would say anything that makes your soul feel that way in life, is worth looking for and worth keeping. I believe love should be similar to a flight, it should elevate your spirit, make you feel free, make you feel infinity only by looking in someone's eyes. Being enthusiastic about someone else's existence should spark that feeling of height, of immensity, of endless flight. If someone's presence doesn't make you feel that way, if being near them doesn't make you become amazed and lucky to be alive at the same time, if you don't wonder about someone as if you dash across the sky, glance up a waterfall, or make a jump from a plane, if it doesn't make your heart believe in miracles, it's not the love that's worth your time. Life is too short and it goes too fast to settle for something that doesn't make you happy. Because love should make you happy, more than anything. It should also help you be the best you can become. It should make you glad to be alive.

I must mention that experiencing physical interaction with someone has to be, as I see it, only a part of what love means. I want to experience that only with someone who makes me feel I can fly just by being near. I want to share that experience only with someone who would understand who I am and I would get to feel infinity only by looking in that person's eyes. Otherwise, it's just a trivial exercise of muscles and electric impulses, in the absence of the flight that brings infinity closer. If it doesn't feel like eternity, it's not the right choice. As Charlie Chaplin once said, your naked body should be available only to the one who can love your naked soul. I would go further and say a naked body should not even be a body anymore to someone who can see the universe in it and feel its boundaries dissipate just like the limitless sky. Love should be more than a superficial, casual encounter of bodies, it should be more than an exchange of heat or energy: it should at least be a meaningful encounter of souls. It should be a flight that makes you happy.

When you are born again, you find that your preferences have somehow changed too. The situations you go through make you see things on a deeper level. You are no longer content with incomplete answers, half done objectives, meaningless actions or people who waste your time by not being honest, well intended or to the point. If you go through the process of working on yourself, that exigence will apply to the exterior world too. You will appreciate the positive, genuinely good people more, because you will see beyond masks more easily. You will see that society is full of fake attitudes, selfish interests, materialistic concepts and trivial motivations. You will learn to see through this mess and distinguish the good from the bad in a new perspective. Because there's much good in the world, but it needs to be seen and understood - and appreciated, even in the little things, the daily gestures, the benevolent, encouraging words and the random smiles. There's deep meaning in apparently insignificant moments. Living in the present while looking to the future becomes easier when you enjoy the present more. Enjoying who you are makes everything have more value, in the instant you realize every moment counts and life is made of moments that flow by.

Living in the present starts with being aware that you are alive and that in itself is an endless opportunity, with every new sunrise, to appreciate another chance to start again. Your story is your decision.

I used to think I was unique. Then I discovered there were many people going through similar situations, transforming their lives to be redefined. And after being born again I understood I was still unique, even if others would face similar journeys. Everyone is different, everyone sees life and the world in their own unique way. Each of us should be appreciated for what we are, for what we become, for what we can do, for how we seem similar and how we do not coincide exactly in our particular inner structure. We should appreciate the things we share and the things that make us different too. We should find it fortunate that we can revel in uniqueness, diversity and unity at the same time. If only people would cease to be afraid of what makes us different from one another, overcoming the instinct of rejecting what is unknown, creative thinking would flourish and conflicts would diminish considerably. Most anger comes from fear of losing something. If people stopped feeling threatened by differences, they would start seeing what is essential.

Every year we celebrate a new beginning, we are happy to be alive. We celebrate life for one day around the world, and then proceed to destroy it for the rest of the days within the new year. People should appreciate and respect life in every form, every day of the year, every second they live. Because that spark of life is precious: it is not something you can just breathe into and make it shine, make it move, rolling into existence. Appreciating life would mean seeing it in diversity and expansion, having the kindness to understand the essence is valuable in itself, in any way it exists. Because it is a priceless miracle and an irreplaceable gift.

Every step of the way is at first unknown. We still have so much to learn about the mysteries of life and this universe, but the first thing to do would be to appreciate it. If we could learn to see the essence within variables, we would watch the light shining through a multitude of moving universes. If we are made of stardust, if atoms are actually moving energy, nothing of what we see is anything else but broken pieces of light, assembled and disassembled, redesigned and redefined, scattered across the galaxies in countless directions. What is actually the essence of everything is the movement, the change, the spark of life that keeps shining. If you feel that spark in your soul, you enjoy being alive.

You can make that spark bright, by improving who you are. Don't ever let the world or anyone around you dim that light, don't let them deny it, reduce it or extinguish it from you. Make sure you never let reality or any circumstances overwhelm you to the point of driving you to forget that you have that spark inside. Make it worth living for. Don't let anyone tell you who you are, or decide your life path for you. Take that spark and make it so bright, make it shine so intensely from inside out, that others will see the light and understand how undeniably alive you are. Make the world recognize the spark of life that is actually who you are.

As for me... I know who I am. I've always known it very well, beyond any situation. I've been really certain of it my entire life. Now I am undoubtedly more of myself than I ever was, and that is indescribably great.

Being born once is a wonder in itself.

Being born again is a miracle.

And being alive is a chance to fly.