Fire

I don’t know about you, but this year seems to be off to an especially busy and stressful start.  Today, with this poem shared at a training event, I was reminded of the need to balance our (never ending!) day-to-day demands with adequate space or breathing room.  I hope this serves as a gentle reminder for you, too.

Feel free to share your thoughts:  Where do you need to add space between your logs?  In what ways would adjusting the blend of wood and air provide you with a healthier balance of light, warmth and sustenance?

Fire

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 douse the flames

almost as surely as a pail of water.

So building fires requires attention

to the spaces in between,

as much as to the wood.

When we are able to build open spaces

in the same way we have learned

to pile on the logs,

then we can come to see how

it is fuel and the absence of the fuel, together,

that make fire possible.

We only need to lay a log

lightly from time to time.

A fire grows

simply because the space is there,

with openings in which the flame

that knows just how it wants to burn can find its way.

~ Judy Brown ~