“Just as fire and water cannot coexist in a single vessel, so too love for this world and love for the next cannot coexist in the heart of a believer.” (Rabbeinu Baḥya ibn Paquda)
And I can feel them raging in my heart
fire and water, locked in combat
and one is always ascending over the other
When the fire fills me
I charge forward
my life coming into focus
the fog dissipates
the water evaporates
and I remember who I am
toppling obstacles
covering ground
When the water floods me
I slip backward
like everything is forgotten
the rest of my life somehow
fading into irrelevance,
focusing on emptiness
letting go of everything
falling behind
the place I know I should be
And I am the rope
in this lifelong game of tug-of-war
as I choose, constantly, the side to prevail
for man can plummet to the depths
or soar to great heights
become a creature of the deep
or a prophet walking among angels
And it’s hard, truly hard
to be human
to fight this battle
I recall a different sage who remarked,
“People are likened to a metal furnace.
One minute they burn hot like a flame
But soon they turn cold as ice”
Now if there’s one thing I know, it is this:
He who can sense the fire and water raging within
will not easily forget it
And the best advice of all?
Do not, even for a day
cease to stoke the fire!
