In the search for truth, some people are hammers. They pound away at the façade of “what is,” exposing the lies and allowing the light of “what could be” to shine through.

The hammer has the power and the will and the imagination to build new realities.

The world needs more hammers.

But the world also needs candles.

Candles carry the light through the fog in order to illuminate alternate paths to the same destination.

Some may see the candle’s efforts as insignificant, considering the immensity of the pressing darkness all around.

But while its flame may be small, the candle burns with an intensity and passion that under the right circumstances can shine brighter than the sun.

Of course, there’s no reason why a person can’t be both a candle AND a hammer. That would be the ideal, though one doesn’t always have to be both at the same time.

Some people are able to easily flow back and forth between the two. Others are more comfortable with one approach even as they also strive to adopt both.

Despite the differences in their methods, one more forceful, one more subtle; there is no conflict.

They each attack the situation from different perspectives.

Both are valuable in their own way to tear down walls.

The hammer weakens the foundation, and the candle provides the spark to help it catch fire.

Together, they reduce the structure of “what is” to a smoking pile of rubble.

And then, out of the ashes,

they provide the light

and the intensity

and the passion

and the will

and the power

and the imagination

to create a shining and open new future.