Humans are like lightbulbs

I have been doing a lot of praying, meditation, reflecting, and reminiscing on my life lately. About the path I am on, where I want to go, who I have been choosing to spend my time with. Thinking about my past and the decisions I have made, the relationships I have kept or ended. This morning during my reflection time a strange thought kind of hit me. So here we are!

I believe people are similar to lightbulbs…. I know. What??? Just hear me out for a second though. Lightbulbs come in a variety of ways. Different shapes, colors, wattage, size, price, etc. All lightbulbs are unique in their own way… on the outside. Just like people! We are all different sizes, shapes, ethnicities, races, ages, etc., I think you get the point. Here is the good part: Lightbulbs may all be different and unique on the outside, but they have one thing in common on the inside… they all share an electrical current. They all have one connection of power, or energy, if you will, running through them. Without this power or connection of current they stay unlit and their true exterior design can’t even be seen. Lets think about a string of Christmas lights, one bulb dies and the whole string goes dark. If you have four lightbulbs in a lamp in order to brighten up a room and one breaks, you know, because the room instantly becomes darker. If you replace a few standard bulbs with some new energy saving ones with higher wattage, now all of a sudden you can see everything better and your room is way brighter. You think Im crazy?! Lets bring this back to my original point… humans are like lightbulbs.

Everybody goes through life with people. Family, friends, coworkers, the clerk at the grocery store, your neighbors, your church community. As you go through life your network of people starts to grow, and you need to think of yourself as the leader of the energy current running through each and every person. The energy has to start somewhere right? If we scale this back for simplicity lets just look at your close circle of people. This would be your family and friends or people you see or spend a majority of your time with. Now say for instance there is one of those people in your circle that is an energy sucker. They just constantly keep requiring extra energy and they just keep taking from you with no energy in return. What is going to happen? Well eventually that current is going to be going too much one way and now YOU, the energy giver, starts to lose some light and your bulb gets dimmer. Now, because your energy is strained some other people around you don’t get a full current so their light becomes dimmer too. Or maybe one of the bulbs in your circle breaks or a connection goes bad, and now you try to use all of your extra energy plus some to still keep the room nice and bright. In the process you exhaust yourself and eventually your current dies, and all thats left is the exterior bulb with nothing on the inside, you’re empty. Makes sense if you think about it right? Which had me thinking long and hard about the people I have in my close circle and the decisions I make with my energy.

Life isn’t easy… I think we have all figured that out by now… and if you haven’t yet, SURPRISE! One thing that is certain is that you need people in your circle, in your corner, to help you with the good, bad, and ugly. People will come and go, and sometimes you will learn that people aren’t a good fit for your circle. How do you decide?? Think about you glowing like a lightbulb. I want people in my circle that are going to help me glow brighter and really light up a room. If they need a bit of extra energy one day because they are having a hard time lighting to their full potential, I want them to return the favor to me when my current is lacking, because it will. We all have those days. I want people in my circle that won’t take power away from me, because I want to shine bright too. In order for me to shine to my fullest potential maybe it is time to replace some average bulbs with those new energy savers or higher wattage bulbs?

Relationships are hard, people are complicated, but I honestly believe you can’t do life with out them. You need people in your circle. You need each other to fill a room with light. You need eachothers’ current in order to stay alive on the inside. We are all beautiful people on the outside. All shapes, sizes, races, ethnicities, sexes, but without that one common current running through each and every one of us, which gives us light, can people even see our beautiful design? Humans are like lightbulbs. The people you choose to surround yourself with/connect with can either help you shine bright or dim your light.

I choose to have a circle of people who make me a better person. To show me how bright I can be. Who let me show off my exterior design. A circle of people that don’t take my power away from me. Who is in your circle of people? Are they helping you fill the room with light or is there a dark corner left unlit?