The Paradox of the Flame

hat image of the burning bush has always held a strange power for me. A fire that consumes yet doesn't destroy – it’s such a potent symbol. It makes you think about forces beyond our everyday understanding, something raw and vital that defies simple explanation. It feels more profound, somehow, than a deity depicted with a human face, something so much bigger than our limited perceptions. You wonder what it would have been like to truly look upon it, without flinching.

And then there's heartbreak. That searing, all-consuming pain that feels like it's stripping you bare. It’s a different kind of fire, one that leaves you feeling like nothing will ever be the same. That push and pull between wanting to let go and this almost desperate need to hold onto the memory, just to feel something again. It’s a kind of self-inflicted burn, I suppose.

Fire itself is such a contradictory thing. It needs to consume to live, constantly feeding on itself, a destructive force that somehow sustains itself. And that feels a lot like how you cope after a really bad breakup, replaying everything, picking at the wounds, just to keep the ghost of what you had alive.

With that in mind, here are the lyrics to "Wildfire":

...

[Verse 1]

I said ‘please’ so much I learned to hate its taste on my tongue,

but grew addicted to the wanting,

You said we’d grow old together when we were quite young,

Picked me up like I was your chosen one.

So romanticized, glint in your eyes,

our permanent perfect set-up of prophesized,

A fairytale, daydream regaled, like you knew all my deepest wants, and I,

...

[Chorus]

I felt longing like lipstick and fantasy,

I was there, and so scared, but romantically.

You were stealing my scenes so damn beautifully,

Moments kept perfect-neat,

-

A moonlit gleam, on rose-gold tiles,

Expensive hopes for you and I,

The sanctity, of careful lies,

Before your wildfire,

-

you were a wildfire.

...

[Verse 2]

Can you lobotomize me, then tell me it’ll be okay?

Clear the desperate from my headspace.

I was so ready for your promise that you’d stay,

but you tore my everything away.

-

A loving man, mirage I cleared,

A wizard’s hat trick, it all disappeared.

The coldest day, the darkest night,

I track down my comfort in the urge to cry.

-

[Chorus]

And felt longing like lipstick and fantasy,

I was there, and so scared, but romantically.

You were stealing scenes so damn beautifully,

Moments kept perfect-neat,

...

[Bridge]

An apocalypse, my friends and I,

"You'll get through this, you'll be alright"

The ugly truth, the soothing lies,

“He wanted me, he changed his mind,”

...

[Chorus]

And your wildfire, a blistered blaze,

A torrid mess on my clean page,

The end-all of my everything,

Hope springs eternal, but I miss me,

-

Now I’m begging for more surgery,

to artfully remove the you from me,

But the burns are there, they’ll never leave,

you were a wildfire.

That’s "Wildfire." It’s about that burning, consuming feeling of a really bad breakup, that place where you’re stuck between wanting the pain to stop and almost needing it to remember what it felt like to be loved, even if it was a destructive kind of love. It's about that raw, exposed feeling, like you've been burned down to nothing, but somehow, you're still there, aching.

The Paradox of the Flame: From Divine Encounter to the Ashes of a Broken Heart . It's about that raw, exposed feeling, like you've been burned down to nothing, but somehow, you're still there, aching.