WHO AM
I?
And, we are laughing and looking
across the fire at each other, and talking. That’s how we keep our attention
focused on the present and not worry about what’s in the dark and probably
looking at us from the dark forest.
Some
of us are hardwoods, dense, heavy, with thick layers of l’aubier, living
sapwood. Others of us are soft pines.
Some branches, cut limbs. We toss in pine cones with lots of future yet to be
released and planted. New forest re-seed themselves after the fire rages
through and burns down the ancient trees. Sometimes I feel like an ancient
tree.
As I sit in front of the fire I see that we burn
our pasts. We release those seeds of the future by telling our past stories.
And those are the fuel for the New Year’s fire.
Some
of our stories are about our victories. Some of the stories are about our
defeats. Our losses. Some of the stories are about the things which others did
to us. It is good to release those stories that are not strengthening for us.
We'll toss them onto the fire pit and watch them burn. Let ‘em go. Let the
sparks rise to the sky. Turn them into ashes. Let them go.
WHY
ARE WE HERE?
Sitting
around the fire and telling our stories to one another is something that men do,
that women do, that people do. We have been hosting fire evenings for years. We
invite our longtime friends to come and sit. One would think that, after all
these years that the stories would be repetitive, but they're not. Just as the
years of our lives are cyclical, our storytelling to one another is likewise
cyclical. We peel off the layer of one story at one time on one year on one
weekend on one night there is more. Our lives are deeper than we can imagine.
The hurts run very deep. In some cases there may be no end to the depths of
despair that our experiences have given us. It is good to sit in front of the
fire and tell those stories.
Tonight
plays a special role in the process. We are held by the darkness.
How
much smaller as a people we become when we can't live with the elements – fire,
water, wind, and the earth. When we become too civilized we become too small too
containerized. Domesticated. We need to be out we need to be risking. We need to be standing in front of the raw
elements. We need to float our lives down the rivers of life. We need to be
blown about and buffeted by the winds. We need to be challenged by the snow. We
need also to face the fires. Our I-being needs to touch the elements.
There
used to be refining fires when things were melted and smelted and created by those
who work the metals. Our metals in our hearts and our lives are still worked
over. But many of us are not so skilled his craftsman's. When things get hot
and we start getting pounded we tend to flee rather than join in the pounding.
Let's take this thing and pound it into a different shape. We can change, we
can grow. But we must be willing to withstand the pain. Stand the heat. So long
as we are the cause of our own heat and realize that then were willing to put
up with it. The refining fire will burn out the impurities in our character.
Smelt the iron of our selves. But we have to put ourselves into that fire we
have to load that fire tray with what we want to burn.
It
is amazing how quickly our life stories which are soft and flabby, go up in
smoke. That's all they are is smoke. Very little heat. Softwood is only water
and smoke. And so our lives. If they have been uneventful barely warm us.
WHAT
DO I WANT?
I want
to sit with old friends around the fire. I don't give a damn how cold it is
outside. I live in Vermont. And in Vermont you can count on there being ice and
snow and how many Vermonters do not want to sit outside. How many Vermonters
can't stand the fidgetiness of nature? You can stand the fidgetiness of nature
if in your heart you have a burning fire. You have a desire. You have a love.
And, of course, this year is not
cold. There has been no ice and snow. Like sometimes in our lives, we are not
challenged. We are not met by opposition. Life gives us a “pass” and there is,
seemingly, no resistance. But, the reality does not matter.
We will sit, and drape ourselves in a
bit less jackets and the fire will seem hotter. And the stories, when they
come, will blaze brighter. But the dark will be just as dark, and deep and
mysterious. We know the mountains which we must cross in the future are just as
high, and lie over to the East. As we ascend, there will be more snow. And, you
know the snow will eventually come. Eventually.
And
your future vision prepares for it. Your heart will be glad when the leaden
skies return.
And your friends will return. They have
been delayed. But, they have said they will be there. They will come for the fire.
The New Year will come, eventually. And you will be prepared. The saws and axes
to cut and split the stories are to one side.
You
know the future will be coming. Soon. And you hope it will arrive as will the unexpected
guest.
© Copyright 2016, Jean W. Yeager
All Rights Reserved
TH3 SIMPLE QUESTIONS: Slice Open Everyday Life
A book published of the first 6-months of posts of this blog. Softcover $11.95 or eBook @ $3.95. AT AMAZON, BN, KOBO
http://www.amazon.com/Jean-Yeager/e/B00WJWUAOS
Read chapters of this book at BUBLISH.COM https://www.bublish.com/author/view/5046
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