Tiny Revolutions №115: It's Time to BURN
I wrote a manifesto 🔥🔥🔥
It seems writing that cranky last essay in praise of discomfort cleared the path for something new: a manifesto of sorts. The first draft came ripping out of me in a doctor’s office waiting room on a Tuesday morning. It attempts to capture years of living and working with big questions about how we thrive and create meaning in a world of constant technological progress and upheaval, and I hope it inspires you.
The Fire Inside Manifesto
(It's time to BURN)
The Revelation
The machines aren’t just coming — they’re challenging us to rediscover our humanity.
As artificial intelligence reshapes the world, it offers a mirror, revealing the beauty and depth of what it means to be alive. The machines are mastering tasks we once thought impossible — and in doing so, they're forcing us to remember a startling truth: we’ve never been purely rational beings. Our greatest magic has always emerged from somewhere darker and more mysterious.
This is both terrifying and liberating. We can no longer hide behind our carefully constructed masks. And why should we? The inexplicable obsessions, irrational hungers, and wild impulses we’ve been taught to repress are becoming our salvation.
Tending the fire that burns in each of us is our path forward.
The Body's Wisdom Returns
As the cold empire of technology expands, our bodies invite us to reclaim their ancient intelligence.
Our bodies know. Before thought, before reason, before words can form, they know — in the clench of the gut, the tightening of the throat, the deep ringing in the bones when we recognize the truth. We are each of us flesh-and-blood prophets, receiving messages from the oracles of our cells.
This is wisdom older than language, and it speaks to us through sensation. The way we instinctively recoil when danger is near. The mysterious pull toward certain people and ideas. The rejection of paths that look perfect on paper but feel wrong in our gut.
These inexplicable truths beckon us deeper into the mystery of our own experience.
Into the Unknown
What was once the domain of mystics and wounded healers now beckons to us all. As we see through our comfortable illusions of rationality, we can no longer pretend that inner work is optional or reserved for the few.
But here's the beautiful twist: this journey does not demand tragedy as its price of admission. The great adventure of self-discovery is becoming the path we must all walk. Not with heavy solemnity, but with curiosity and playfulness.
Each feeling becomes a clue, each desire a compass point, each moment of confusion an invitation to explore. As we learn to listen to our desires and take what lives inside us seriously, we find that transformation doesn't have to be born of crisis. It can emerge from wonder, from play, from the simple courage to start asking "what if?" and follow where it leads.
The Channel Opens
Creation isn't something we do — it's what the universe does through us when we get out of our own way.
Our work begins in the uncertain moment when we follow an inkling we don't yet understand. When we pursue an idea that makes no sense by any rational measure. When we trust the whisper that says “this matters” even though we can't explain why.
Our flashes of intuition and deep inner knowing are innate guides into the magical, miraculous realm of the imagination. And as these channels open wider, they lead us naturally toward each other.
The Spaces Between
Human connection isn’t about efficiency — it’s about depth, recognition, and the mysterious lure of chemistry. As we discover our full complexity, we find that relationships are gateways to unprecedented possibility.
This is how the fire spreads: through the recognition of our profound interdependence, and all the ways we shape each other and the world around us.
We have before us an extraordinary opportunity: to explore the living web of consciousness that exists in the spaces between us, unlocking deeper ways of working, creating, and dreaming together.
The Threshold
We stand at the precipice of a new age, poised to explore the frontier of our own nature, more vast and unknowable than we've ever dared to admit. The universe itself is evolving through us. We are awakening to what we've always been: conscious channels for the creative intelligence of the cosmos.
The fire already burns inside each of us. The future belongs to those who dare to tend it — who choose to listen deeply, create boldly, and connect authentically. Who trust the wisdom of their bodies and follow the whispers of their intuition. Who gather in circles of shared imagination and collective dreaming.
We are its children. We are its fuel. We are its future.
The time for hiding is over.
It’s time to BURN.
The Kindling
In the spirit of recognizing other fire tenders, here are some contemporary writers and thinkers on Substack who’ve influenced me, and whose work has served as a reference point for this manifesto:
, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Go read them!There are so many others to cite. The ones who spring to mind immediately are Audre Lord, Esther Perel, Charlotte Joko Beck, Joan Didion, Lauren Groff, and Pema Chodron. But I could go on for days.
Also: thank you to my dear friends and editors who reviewed drafts of this piece: Alex Bruehl, Caity Graves,
, , and . We all need collaborators and I am graced with great ones.
How I’m tending my fire in 2025
I'm heading into the new year feeling like none of us have any time to waste. It is not enough to feel things deeply or to have good intentions — progress requires action.
Here are three ways I’m helping others bring this work to life — and ways you can join me:
Tap into desire and experiment your way into a life you’re excited about through my group coaching program for women, The Fire Inside.
Cultivate and amplify your most unique, human, distinct voice — and your most ambitious work — through workshops and coaching for writers (more about that to come).
Ground yourself in ancient wisdom through the practice of Zen Buddhism at
, where I’m training to be a lay teacher. I’ve found this practice instrumental in discerning what I have to offer the world, and removing the fetters that prevent me from acting upon it.
I’ll be hosting some free workshops soon to explore these ideas in action. Stay tuned for details and be sure to subscribe if you haven’t already.
Thanks for being here, as ever. If this resonated, please like this post or share it with someone who needs it. These are not times to sit idly by.
😘
Sara
p.s. More kindling:
I love this so much. Thank you universe for working through this woman! And thank you Sara for listening and heeding the call. ❤️🔥
What a thoughtful, inspired read! I’ve heard so many technophiles, ethicists and podcast pundits exploring this topic but this is the first critique I’ve seen through this lens. Thanks, Sara, for a unique and, alas, hopeful call to action, at just the moment I needed it!