Igniting Our Inner Spark

Last month I discovered a song written from Disney quotes. I love the effect Disney movies have on me. Once I see a new film I love seeing it again, learning more about it, reading the dialogues and looking for quotes… Definitely, they use magic to transmit powerful messages through their films. The last release at  Christmas, Soul, made it’s magic too. It may seem childish to learn life lessons from an animated film, but this particular one has helped me to approach my work from a new perspective. 

As you may remember, if you have watched the film already, the Great Before (popularly rebranded as the ‘You Seminar’) is one of the locations in the Pixar film, Soul. This centre is where young souls develop and gain personalities before being transported to a newborn child on Earth. To get assigned to Earth, each soul must find their “spark” — the thing that most inspires them. This can be from music, candle making, poetry or crafting. However big, however small, it does not matter. 

I admire how Pixar is able to translate difficult abstract concepts into a language that we can understand. I have been thinking of ‘The Great Before’ as home: the place where our personalities were nurtured since childhood and developed before we “go outside”. As many have defined, the family is the basic unit of society and the best environment for a person to grow. The family is where life begins, where we are cared for and where we acquire the values that will sustain our lives. 

Home is the best training centre for inner growth, because love received in the family prepares the souls to develop their ‘inner spark’. We all have a spark inside of us. When ignited we experience joy, creativity, desire to do better, to seek purpose and to share it with others. In this process we all need help. Our inner spark can be so familiar to us, that we do not always see it as a gift. We consider it something normal and maybe not worthy. However, love can change how we look at things, especially to ourselves. 

As homemakers, we create a space around us where others will feel safe and encouraged to accept themselves, allowing them to show their real selves. At the same time, it is the place to come back to from our daily battles. We do not have to hide our weaknesses because we are loved and accepted as we are and we know it. At home we become who we are and develop “what makes us us”. We find our spark. 

We are all unique and different. Our talents, the spark of each one’s life, are a gift for the world. Our family helps us discover our talents and becomes our first audience. It is the homemaker’s duty to keep fuelling that spark with other family members until it becomes a flame that illuminates their world and the world of others. This is why I like saying that home is “the cradle of gift”. The safe place where that gift is nurtured, until it is ready to be shared with the world. At home we learn to live our lives fully, to become a gift for others while igniting our inner spark.

However, as Jerry states “a spark isn’t a soul’s purpose.” It is not the spark itself, but rather how individuals choose to approach everything that they do that provides their lives with meaning. This is what Joe discovered in The Great Before. While helping 22 find her passion, he discovered what it means to have soul. This is Soul’s meaningful lesson, to live in pursuit of the spark of joy, living every minute fully. (But that is worth another post!)