Burning the candle on both ends...

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It is a descriptive saying ~ burning the candle on both ends ~ and the pictures that come to mind are not good on a multitude of levels...
For starters, if a candle is burning on both ends, it cannot stand upright; it would need to be horizontal; laying down. Definitely not the natural position for a candle. And burning while laying down, either end will burn faster than it would while the candle is upright, as the wax will flow away as soon as it melts... The wick would then get longer and longer, eventually burning the surface the candle is laying upon ~ on both ends. In this picture it could quickly become a fire hazard!

So let’s compare that to the situation that may occur in our lives ~ when we are too busy and not taking care of ourselves as well as we should.

It is hard to see what the beginning is. Somewhat of an ‘chicken and egg’ situation, really. Does it start with the desire (or the sense of obligation) to do even more in one day ~ effectively lighting the can on both ends? Or does it start with falling over ~ or maybe being pushed over ~ giving access to the wick of the candle on both ends?
Either way, as soon as we overextend ourselves this much, our energy cannot function in the manner it was meant to. It falls over. It starts blocking the natural flow of itself, allowing productivity and creativity to fritter away on either side.

It is that situation where you go out to do your grocery shopping and come back with everything that looked appealing in the store, except the things you are out of in your pantry. And when you go back to quickly pick them up, you get waylaid and may or may not return with them ~ beating yourself up because it was what you set out to do in the first place. Twice.

In a sense you find yourself ‘putting out fires’ all around you ~ and while you may feel you are succeeding and those around you are even happy with your efforts ~ pretty soon you may find that your life is on fire...
Things aren’t working anymore; sometimes quite literally as the energy around you can get so frenzied that light bulbs burst or electrical appliances stop working...
And if that isn’t enough to get your attention, the next thing might be something a lot closer, a lot more physical.

Whether you look at it in a literal sense or as a saying that can apply to your life ~ burning the candle on both ends is a bad idea! We would do better just choosing one end ~ one priority ~ and run with it...
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