I’ve been reflecting on what it means to live a life in service, not in the grand sense of titles or accolades, but in the quieter act of showing up for others–in public and private. Of offering what light we have, even when it costs us.
What follows isn’t a biography. It’s an allegory—a way of making sense of a journey I know all too intimately. Maybe you’ll recognize parts of your own story in it too.
The Giver of Sparks
by Densil Porteous
In the age of shadowed glass, when clarity was a luxury and questions were often punished, there lived one who walked between worlds. They were born into a place where silence was safety, where difference was danger, and where truth was a thing whispered, not spoken.
Even as a child, they saw, and were, the flicker in people’s eyes—the longing to know, to be, to rise, to believe. So, they began gathering sparks. Not flames, not fire, but the smallest glimmers: stories shared in quiet corners, lessons learned in the margins, truths uncovered at great cost.
They did not hoard the sparks. They carried them in their hands, offering them to anyone brave enough to reach out. Not everyone did. Some turned away. Some called it foolish. Some tried to blow the light out. But others—others cupped those sparks and began to see. To dream. To build.
In time, the giver of sparks faced their own cost—not burns, nor chains, but loneliness. Not blisters, nor an eagle, but the slow ache of being misunderstood. And still, they gave. Still, they believed that if even one person used that light to illuminate a path forward, it was worth it.
They never asked to be named in stories. Never called themselves a leader or a savior. They simply walked, hands open, heart fierce. Gathering sparks. Believing in the possibility that we—all of us—could become the fire.
Closing Reflection
There are stories that live just below the surface of our lives—tales not of heroes or martyrs, but of people simply trying to do good in a world that often resists. We don’t always get to choose the path we walk. But we do get to choose how we walk it—and who we walk it for. This story is a quiet offering—a reminder that leadership isn’t always loud, and that the most powerful change often starts with a single spark shared in love.
Let’s keep lighting the way for one another.
