The Color of Gathering around the Fire

“Each of us is born

with a box of matches inside us

but we can't strike them

all by ourselves” 

(Laura Esquivel, Like Water for Chocolate)

So the story goes, that humankind, in some form, has gathered around a fire for hundreds of thousands of years. Frightened to awe-full respect by the explosive unfolding of a lightning strike; fleeing bush and grass fires; and one fateful, trajectory-changing day, holding fire captive to the control of a stone ring. Humanity's first hearth; the soul's light incarnate.

Gathering around the fire... ancient fires of the herds-people as they listened to the song of the stars, huddling for warmth; remembering hearth and kin at home. Ancient fires of the gods in mythic tales of struggle and power, creation and destruction. Ancient fires kilning bricks for monuments, roads, palaces, and huts. 

“Keep a little fire burning;

however small, however hidden.” 

(Cormac McCarthy, The Road)

Gathering around the fire... desert peoples on cloudless, cold nights, the cry of a desert fox on the hunt piercing the dark; arctic tribes feigning sunlight through the dark of winter's solstice, a soft fire's glow illuminating a snowy hearthstone.

Gathering around the fire... ancient flames, older than humanity; old when the dinosaurs roamed; timeworn when the earth trembled in its forming. Fuel and oxygen, joined in elder-dance; the movement of the universe in its first tentative steps, energy in motion. 

Gathering around the fire... the cooking hearth, upon which hangs a hearty stew, simmering and filling the home with the aroma of welcome. The forge: wherein the blacksmith bends metal to her will - nails, shoes, rails, hoes; tools of life. Gunpowder: the fire of war, of the hunt, of life and death.

For one hundred thousand years the village has gathered around the fire. Here our collective story is given voice, digested, remembered, retold. The village fire softens the hard heart of conflict, hardens resolve for life's challenges; makes a place for sorrow, even as it celebrates joy. In the fire's gathering shame has no voice as the village gathers wounding's fragments into wholeness.

The finest steel

has to go through the hottest fire.

(Richard M. Nixon)

Even now, after countless millions of fires, we gather. Electric stoves, natural gas furnaces, wood stoves, and combustion engines. We are drawn, as were our ancient ancestors, to the heat, the power, and the life of fire. It is written upon the codex of our cells - into our DNA: turn to the fire; come to its light; bask in its warmth. 

Gathering around the fire... a slowly dying thermonuclear reaction that floods a solar system with light and life. One star, in the immense vastness of the universe; one star whose gravity swings our planet on an invisible string. One star - our fire, the fire, the world's hearth.

The most powerful weapon on earth

is the human soul on fire. 

(Ferdinand Foch)

Gathering around the fire... fire of passion, fire of Love; the infernal of injustice burning against the background of change; the raging fire of new romance; the white-hot embers of old friendships. Finally, of all our gatherings, fires archaic and fires new, it is the fire of the soul that seeks meaning, connection, fuel. What fuels the fire that warms the hearth of your soul?

I leave the last word to 13th century poet, Rumi:

“Set your life on fire.

Seek those who fan your flames”

(Jalaluddin Mevlana Rumi)

The color of gathering around the fire...

safety, community, life.

A spark

in the darkness

ignites

the tinder

of hope

hearth

and

home

You

are that

spark

Burn

Breathe

Be

To Ponder Further:

- From the Bible: "...for our God is a consuming fire." (Hebrews 12.29)

- From Hinduism: "There lies the fire within the Earth, and in plants, and waters carry it; the fire is in stone.
There is a fire deep within men, a fire in the kine, and a fire in horses: The same fire that burns in the heavens; the mid-air belongs to this divine Fire. Men kindle this fire that bears the oblation and loves the melted butter." (Atharva Veda 12.1)

- From Taoism: "Buy captive animals and give them freedom. How commendable is abstinence that  dispenses with the butcher! While walking be mindful of worms and ants. Be cautious with fire and do not set mountain woods or forests ablaze." (Tract of the Quiet Life)