Fire
By Judy Sorum Brown
Space between the logs. What makes a fire burn is space between the logs, a breathing space. Too much of a good thing, too many logs packed in too tight can squelch a fire, can douse the flames almost as surely as a pail of water can. So building fires requires tending in a special way, attention to the wood as well as to the spaces in between, so fire can catch, can grow, can breathe, can build its energy and warmth which we so need in order to survive the cold. We need to practice building open spaces just as clearly as we learn to pile on the logs. It's fuel and absence of the fuel together, that make fire possible. Let it develop in the way that's possible when we lay logs in just the way the fire wants to go. Then we can watch it as it leaps and plays, burns down and then flames up in unexpected ways. Then we need only lay a log on it from time to time. Then it has a beauty that emerges not where logs are but where spaces can invite the flames to burn, to form exquisite patterns of their own, their beauty possible simply because the space is there, an opening in which the flame that knows just how it wants to burn can find its way. |