You lit me up and look - a little thoughtfully or pensively - into my light. Maybe you are also a little happy about it. Anyway, I am happy that I burn.

If I wouldn’t burn, I would be in a box with others who don't burn either. In such a box, we candles absolutely have no sense. We're just lying around there. I only have meaning when I'm burning.

And now I'm burning. But since I've been burning, I've gotten a little bit shorter, which is a shame on the one hand, because I can work out when I'm going to be so short that I'll just be a tiny stump.

But that's how it is; there are only two options. Either, I stay in the box complete and unscathed, then I don't get shorter, then I don't loose anything - but then I don't know what I'm supposed for. Or I give light and warmth, then I know what I am here for, but then I have to give something for it. Something of myself, myself. It's nicer than lying cold and pointless in a box.

It is the same with you humans, exactly like that!

Either you stay to yourself, then nothing happens to you, then nothing goes wrong. But then you don't really know what the meaning of your existence is. Then you are like the candles in the box. Or you give light and warmth. Then you have a purpose in life. Then people are happy that you exist. Then you are not there in vain. But for that you have to give something: from yourself, first and foremost what is alive in you: from your joy, from your warmth, from your loyalty. Also from your laughter, your sadness, from your fears, from your longings, from everything that is alive in you.

Don't be afraid if you get shorter in the process. It's only on the outside. Inside you are getting brighter.

Just think about it when you see a burning candle, because you yourself are such a candle.

I'm just a tiny, single candle. When I burn alone, my light is not great and the warmth that I give is little. Me alone, that's not much. But together with others, the light is great and the warmth is strong.

It's the same with you humans. Taken individually for you, your light is not enormous, and the warmth is small. But you are a lot together with others. Light is contagiously beautiful.