Everyone describes fire as “consuming” things. But if you think about fire as a spark, an ephemeral quality that transforms the energy latent in wood INTO something else, then the concept completely changes. Consuming is not such a bad thing anymore.. it is to use up completely, but energy does not disapear. That is the big failure in the definition. Our object oriented views assume that just because some “thing” is no longer “there” in its original form, it means that it’s gone.. “destroyed or expended by use.. used up”. But according to physics, things and energy don’t just disappear, so the things consumed are not “gone” , they have just been transformed into something else. In the case of a camp fire, the energy in the wood is being converted into heat, flickering flames.. something so beautiful and powerful (no wonder watching fires is so mesmerizing.. it’s an act of transformation).
In that way, when we “consume” it is not necessarily bad. We are merely transforming. What we transform that energy into can be “good” or “bad” or of real quality and value or not. The amazing thing though, is that we and the consciousnesses we are empowered with, have a choice as to what we transform anything from this world into. The food we eat, the oil we burn, the energy from the sun.. the energy is always there and we have the choice to transform that energy into anything from running a marathon, to junky toys, to the very words and thoughts we share with other people — like this post and the thinking that went into it. Fire has no choice.. it must transform things into flames, but we have a choice as to the end of that transformation and THAT is a powerful thing.
So consume, but do so with the understanding that every moment you are alive is a manifestation of a transformation you are in total power of.