Contemplating fire (11)

There are many kinds of heat in our lives, and many forms of burning.  Wood burns; propane burns; coal burns.  The star at the center of our solar system burns, as does the core of the earth we live on.  Our own bodies burn calories of energy in order to maintain their healthy existence.  Sometimes we burn with fever or anger.  When we consider it appropriate, we burn incense as an offering of purification.  And after we die, in many cases our bodies are cremated.

~ Gary Thorp, Sweeping Changes

The air here in the Bogs has turned damp and chilly.  We haven’t rev’d up the furnace yet, but there has some been discussion about it.  What we did do instead is have our first fire of the season.  Or fires (plural) as we had both fireplaces going last night.

(Reminder:  You can click on the photos to see the larger versions.)

Although I am one of those people who is generally on the warm side (being very good at generating my own heat), the dampness, once it seeps in, makes it difficult to stay warm.  The fires provided just the right amount of heat for us as we relaxed last evening.

The bonfire pile has gotten a good soaking from all the rain so it may be a while before we have our annual bonfire.  I was checking through my old photos to get an idea of when we normally have it.  Turns out it’s usually November.  I imagine the right conditions are in place by then.  It has to be dry enough that the wood will burn, but not so dry that we’ll set the grass and trees on fire.  We have the bonfire down by the pond which would limit the spread of the fire but you never know how quickly or how far a hot spark, picked up by the wind, will travel.

(Burning bush after this morning’s rain.)

Fire is the element of the inner flame of self-esteem.  It is the inner element that enables you to choose your path, to evoke visions of your desires.  It is the inner force that gives you the strength of body, the courage of mind, and the faith of spirit with which you may achieve your goals.

~ Amber Wolfe

It’s day 11 of my outdoor commitment.  Motivation was a little hard to come by after looking out the window at the gray skies and wet landscape.  It still felt pretty warm and toasty inside.  Why go out into the cold and damp?

Why, indeed.  Because I said I would.  Because I promised I would.

(The light behind the clouds, or today’s view of the sun.)

I thought, with fire on the brain, that I would be seeking out the reds and oranges while out on my walk.  There was some of that.

(Leaf on fire with yellow.)

But my eyes were drawn more toward things that were black or brown, looking almost charred.

(Blackened coneflowers.)

(Blackened leaf.)

M went out for a walk around the same time.  We walked together for a little while and then separated where one path leads up and over to the woods and the other goes down by the pond.  Since I had been in the woods yesterday, I took the pond route that goes through the middle of one of the meadows and then down.  We didn’t discuss taking separate paths.  We just did it.  We met up again a little later as our paths crossed and then continued on our separate ways.

It’s nice to have a relationship that doesn’t require us to be joined at the hip, where we can go off on our own occasionally and then come back together again.

One of the results of all the rain is that the grass is turning green again.  It was brown for most of the months of August and September.  It’s odd that just as everything else is browning and dying off, the grass has suddenly come back to life.

(A mix of seasons.)