“Everyone has the fire, but the champions know when to ignite the spark.” ― Amit Ray, Enlightenment Step by Step
What does it mean to find and follow a spark?
A spark is when you're plugging along doing something, and you feel, hear, or notice something different. Maybe it's something you're used to doing, or something that catches your eye. You’re taking a walk in a new neighborhood. And all of a sudden, you notice something, feel a nudge, or hear a whisper (or maybe a loud, screaming voice).
Those sparks are your intuition speaking. Your intuition is a knowing or understanding that you might not (yet) be able to articulate.
That nudge is the spark of curiosity.
It wants you to explore.
It wants you to go deeper.
It wants you to surrender.
And what is it that's calling you to follow your spark?
Following breadcrumbs of sparks throughout your day and life can give you clues about where you may want to go.
Here’s an example.
In 2009, I followed a spark that dairy wasn’t good for my then-1-year-old when a surgeon wanted to perform a handful of elective surgeries. That led me to remove dairy and then eat a plant-based diet. I was constantly sharing stories as I learned more about eating plants and removing inflammatory foods from our plates.
I wondered if I could write about it — and that’s when I started my blog back in 2011. So here I am, blogging about food and realizing it was just a starting place; I could go so much deeper.
Life is food, and food is life.
Eventually, I came to appreciate how food is an enjoyable part of life. It's pleasurable, fun, and something we connect over culturally and as a community.
This led me to explore more ideas about life.
If I were simplifying the food on my plate, I could have more time to do the work I enjoy and be with my family.
It goes way beyond food. When it comes to life, there's simplifying — in the stuff we have, where we live, how we work, what we say yes to, and what we say no to.
If we’re fully surrendered, we’re more likely to notice those sparks when they happen.
That spark, when you're walking down the street, exploring a new town, and a display catches your eye. It's an unconscious flash, and you want to go in. So you go in, and you discover something. Maybe it's a book you've been trying to find for years or the perfect French press.
Whatever it was, you saw or felt the pull. When I lost interest in food blogging, I realized that the spark all along was with writing. I enjoyed telling stories.
I’d tell a story and feel a spark. Even right now, as I write this to you, I have a spark. Isn't that meta?
I’m encouraging you to go deeper.
Whenever I felt stuck, listless, or bored, it was because there was no excitement. I lost my spark.
Besides, dull light can’t light up anyone else.
And, like many things. It's not something you can go and look for. You don't set out to look for sparks—they happen. You create them; you make your own spark when you light a fire. It doesn’t happen if you just sit and think about it.
You have to do something. Even if it's rubbing sticks together for a painfully long time, you're doing something — you're taking action.
What you can do to create more sparks:
Perhaps it's trying something new. Sign up for a new class — with so many options online, the possibilities are endless. Take a new route, walk in the other direction, shop at a different grocery store, or set out to notice new things on your usual path. Start a writing practice, morning pages, or a daily art journal.
Another spark recently led me to study French again.
When I was a kid, I wanted to grow up to be a rich, famous fashion designer and live in Paris. Spoiler alert — I live in Florida now. So I left the country (Canada), moved to the US, went back to Canada, and then returned to the US. That's a story for another day, and you can read more about it in my book.
It started when I got an email from a friend a few weeks ago. She's a fellow writer and INFJ. We met at a writing retreat, and we just get each other and enjoy meaningful conversations, whether back and forth over email or on a Zoom call. She recently emailed me in response to how I track my time. She said I had that je ne sais quoi—a quiet confidence, a certain something you can’t put a finger on.
Then, in our back-and-forth email dialogue that day, she pointed me toward a podcast called French is Beautiful.
One morning, as I boiled water for coffee, I scrolled through the episodes and thought it would be the perfect soundtrack for my slow coffee routine (I love my Chemex — affiliate link. If you click and make a purchase, I earn a commission).
Following that spark, I chose an episode. And wouldn’t you know it, the episode I chose to listen to was exactly the one my friend mentioned when she told me about my je ne sais quoi. Isn’t that funny?
I followed that spark, and it led me to the perfect episode to hear that morning.
This podcast felt like sinking my teeth into the richest salted dark-chocolate truffles—it’s that delicious.
I had to tell her, of course. She said she'd thought about finding the specific episode when she recommended the podcast, but instead trusted I’d find it on my own time — and I did.
Anyway, I’m enjoying the podcast; I randomly listened to one episode and then went back to the beginning to listen to them all. And in it, the spark of the French way of life is totally percolating inside me.
The idea of Paris is popping up everywhere — in the random show I flipped on to watch the other day, in a conversation with friends, and over the weekend with family.
I traveled to Paris for the first time in September 2007. Ryan and I went with a friend and her then-boyfriend, who became her fiancé during that trip. (He proposed on the steps of Sacré-Cœur one sunny afternoon). After that 10-day trip, feeling like a local except for tripping over my French (even though I spent 10 years studying the language in school growing up), I realized I’d never practiced it. I came back to Chicago (where we lived at the time) and was determined to embrace more French in my life. Espresso at the café, no more to-go, baguettes, croissants, and macarons in regular rotation. Well, the glow from that vacation faded, but the spark is still there.
So, I’m listening to this podcast, hearing about her expat life, who's now a Francophone sharing lessons about French culture, business ownership, beauty, and the French experience of life.
I keep getting the impulse to embrace more of the French way of life. I'm going through my day with a little less fuss, less makeup, more ease, and more presence. I'm choosing to be present with everything, from my first sip of coffee to people to writing.
This spark is all leading me to sign up to learn French again. Well, I know it to some extent, but I want to go deeper. I want to study it. I want to feel French. I want to carry myself as if I were French; I want to allow myself to feel French.
Now, as far as I know, there's no French in my heritage. My name, Jacqueline (say it with a French accent with me for fun), is the feminine form of Jacques (James in English).
Follow your sparks.
My spark is leading me to explore curiosities, go deeper, press pause on some things, and turn up the volume on others. The light from these sparks encourages me to say yes to things I might have said no to and, of course, to dabble a little en français.
In my 2021-released book, I talk more about finding and following my own spark, through the lens of change.
Get the book: Unfussy Life: An Intuitive Approach to Navigating Change
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