A child’s first spark is not their own — it is the one they see in us.
Parents are the first fire their children know.
But parenting is larger than biology or title.
It belongs to anyone entrusted with the care of a growing soul:
parents, mentors, teachers, coaches, leaders, neighbors, friends.
The sacred duty is the same:
to protect the spark — both theirs, and our own.
You cannot guide a child’s spark if your own has gone dark.
You cannot protect their spark if you have forgotten how to tend yours.
As every flight reminds us:
secure your own oxygen mask before helping others.
If your flame is weak, smothered, or chaotic,
you risk becoming not a beacon, but a blaze —
not a shelter, but a storm.
To protect a spark is to honor its native fire:
- Not molding it into what you wish.
- Not outshining it with your own story.
- Not stealing its air with your ambitions.
- Not extinguishing it with your fear.
Instead, protecting the spark means:
- Creating space without abandonment.
- Offering warmth without burning.
- Guiding without suffocating.
- Trusting that the spark already knows what it is meant to become.
“I’m not raising my kids to make me proud.
I’m raising them to be proud of the life they choose.
Awake. Aware. Alive.”
The legacy of those who protect the spark — whether by blood, by bond, or by blessing —
is not the life they designed for another,
but the spark they kept alive long enough to catch fire on its own.
🔗 If you’d like to follow this thread further, keep reading in the Leading arc: Parenting: The First Scaffolding