You are the light that brightens my eyes, he told her

Hearing those words brought to my mind a poem by Eduardo Galeano I shared more than 12 years ago. A few years later I learned of his death while on a bus ride. Today is a great day to share his poem again. We are the same people, but we are different from the people we were back then.

We are still small people in small places doing small things, the only way to truly change the world.

A sea of little fires

A man from the town of Neguá, on the coast of Colombia, was able to climb to high heaven.

On his return he told the story. He said he had contemplated human life from above.

And he said we are a sea of little fires.

—The world is just that —he revealed—, a bunch of people, a sea of little fires.

Each person shines with his own light among all the others.

No two fires are the same. There are big fires and small fires and fires of all colors. There are people of serene fire, who don't even notice the wind, and people of crazy fire who fill the air with sparks. Some fires, silly fires, do not light or burn; but others burn the life with such passion that one cannot look at them without blinking, and whoever comes close to them lights up.

Eduardo Galeano

What kind of little fire did you choose to be today?