Once upon a time in a dark dense forest two branches of a tree fell off due to strong wind and smashed together, and then was born a spark. The wind died away, and the spark lived on, unnoticed, uncared for.
One day a woodcutter came through the dark forest. He carried a lamp to help him through the darkness. After gathering some wood for the day, tired and content, he lay down for rest. The lamp looked around, bored; and saw the spark.
"Hello spark," the lamp said, "What are you doing in this dark dense forest?"
"I was born here," said the spark, “During the day a wonderful golden light filters through the trees, and during night there is this little star that shines through that little palm tree. It told me that the golden light comes from the Sun, all day all I do is dream to be like the Sun when I grow up- and give light and life to people."
The lamp laughed, "Oh, I give light, but I am so much bigger than you! Stop dreaming Spark!! You are too small to be of any use!"
And the trees in the forest giggled.
The Spark smiled meekly and continued to sparkle, still holding on tightly to its dream.
The woodcutter left in the morning, and the spark noticed that it could see the Sun! THE Sun!! There was an open area formed as the woodcutter had cut some of the trees. And through it, the Sun kept shining. The spark was exhilarated.
"Hello Sun, I am so happy to see you! I have heard a lot about you since I was a child, and I always dreamt to give light and life like you."
The Sun scoffed and said "Umm, sure, keep trying hard. Keep in mind though that everyone has their own capabilities. Some lights shine like me, and some sparkle all their life and realize that it was their destiny to be only a pleasure for some people's eyes. Besides, it is not all that bad to only be of pleasure - if any that is, so don't be discouraged if you find that to be the case for you; which I foresee it will be."
And the trees around laughed. The spark felt sad. The SUN said it was not really of any use. It is the best light in the world and has millions of years of experience. How could it be wrong? Really? That dream that it held on to forever - all through those starry nights - was never meant to be? It sobbed and began to fade.
Then came the Star during the night, "Cheer up Little Spark! The Moon told me about your conversation with the Sun. The world is full of possibilities. I know you can achieve your dreams. Hang in there!!"
So spark again sparkled on, it wasn't as bright as before, remember THE Sun told it that it wasn't going to be of any use? The Star had lost its hero. But is couldn't die, so it lived on.
And the trees gossiped in hushed voices - 'That Star is just over-optimistic. And the spark is soon going to find out that it was a fool to believe the Star.'
Months went by, and the spark still sparkled, the Sun came everyday and ignored it, and the star came every night and encouraged it.
Then one day came the rain, it poured and poured. The Sun had separated a part of water from the Sea and turned it into clouds. It thought it would make its sky look pretty. The clouds could not bear the pain, and started running around in a fit of sorrow till they hit hard against the mountain ranges near the forest. The mountain ranges caressed them and cooled them down. Lo and Behold- they started turning into water again. And the water then gushed through the valleys, shrubs and forests in whatever way they could, eager to meet the sea.
But one of the streams bumped into the spark. The spark flickered and gasped for breath and coughed as it choked. "Sorry!” said the stream, "I did not mean to hurt you, was so happy that I can finally meet the Sea!! Did not see you in the frenzy! We heard your story from the star. It sheds its silver soothing light on the Sea every night. I am really sorry! I hope you grow into the light you dream to be!" And it carefully meandered away from the spark, allowing it to dry.
The Spark smiled, "its okay, and thank you for being so considerate!" But it was dying, and choking. It still smiled on and pretended to be alright so the happy stream did not feel guilty for dampening it.
"Did you hear about the spark?" the trees whispered amongst themselves, "It almost died!"
"Poor spark!” said another tree- "hopefully that will bring it to its senses!"
The disheartened spark had lost all hope. It was weak and tired and dull. 'Maybe the Sun was right after all; and now I am dying,' it thought.
A few hours passed and there came through the forest a wild noise. Hustle-Bustle!! Whoooooooooooooooosh! It grew louder and louder until it became deafening!! The wild wind storm was coming by!! It had caused a lot of casualties on its way. Animals had died, trees had fallen. The trees near the spark started getting worried - 'Oh No! The storm!! What are we going to do?'
And the spark heard, too weak to worry.
The storm became faster and stronger. Trees swayed around, some broke their branches, and some even fell! The storm then saw the spark, "Huh, little weak fellow, I see you are dying! Sorry little fellow, what a slow painful death, and that, after a meaningless life! Well let us make that less painful for you, shall we?"
The storm laughed deliriously. It was so loud that even the Sun heard it in the sky. "It is very unfortunate that the spark had to live a meaningless life - and now, this painful death. Well, everybody carries their own burdens, and I did guess it would be so for the spark. Well, hopefully it isn't too bad." The Sun stated in a matter-of-fact way, and the Moon reflected grimly- its heart crying.
The wind blew and blew at the spark, trying to blow it out. The spark was still weak, it saw itself dying. It thought about the life it had lived, all it saw was the dream- the dream that it cherished for all its life, and now, the wind was trying to kill it. It would die, and the Sun would be proven right. All that holding on would be in vain. In a flash of a moment the spark decided it could not let its dream die. 'It is better to die fighting than dying this way. If I cannot have a meaningful life, I will have a meaningful death'- it thought.
So it looked the wind in the eye; and sparkled with all its strength. It grew stronger and brighter and larger and kept fighting till it turned into a fire. The harder the wind blew the stronger it became, until the wind grew tired of blowing and gave up. "Take it easy brother!" said the wind to the spark- now a fire and moved on.
The Spark had grown into a wildfire, and its tongue started reaching out to engulf the trees. The trees cried in fear, "Please don't kill us! We want to live!"
The spark mellowed, it remembered how it had been weak and meek and lonely. It remembered the pain of being helpless. So it cooled down sparing the trees, and settled into a fire.
It lived for a few months after that. Every once in a while a stranded woodcutter or hunter would come by and find warmth during the coldest nights. They would cook using the fire, and light a wood log to carry forward for their journey. The fire would keep away wild animals, and save them from dying from the cold and hunger.
Finally, the spark was living its dream - it was providing light and life. Maybe, not for the whole world like the Sun, but as they say- for those it helped: it meant the world at that time.
Oftentimes in life, the spark within us is threatened by well-wishing and not so well-wishing people and 'unfortunate' incidents. Never let anyone overpower your dreams and destroy you. Also, remember not to use your power and strength to destroy someone else’s dreams once you have achieved yours.
