Just Winter Fire

Just Winter Fire

It is only just winter,

One week since the solstice fire

We had by the house,

Calling back the sun

From its journey away from us.

In the just winter, too-early dark,

We sit once again by an open fire,

This time at the water’s edge.

Bundled up, huddled together,

We lean into its warmth,

Faces glowing orange,

Shadows dance over your coat

And inside my mind.

The tongues of flame lick the air.

Trees long dead, now dry wood, crackle and pop

Releasing the energy that they soaked up while alive.

Now releasing the sun’s stored fire as heat.

Fire to fire, heat to heat, energy to energy

Until only ashes are left.

We too are products of the sun’s fire

Eating plants that transform light into food

And animals that eat plants,

We children of the sun carry that light within us.

What will we do with it?

Will we release that energy as warmth?

Will we share that light before we too are ashes?

The wind roars in the tops of trees still standing.

It blows lake water in from Severn Sound

Making the channel rise.

You measure it against the dock, flashlight scanning.

We hear it in the dark,

Lapping at the bank,

Shore ice thinly tinkling

As the waves share

the wind’s energy with the land.

Darkness all around,

Fire licking the sky,

Waves washing the earth.

We are burning the dead,

Releasing the heat, soaking it in,

Releasing what had passed,

Grateful for the light, the warmth shared

Making space for what is ahead,

Making peace with what has passed.

The wind brings snow for a moment or two

Sky water falling, lake water lapping, hearts pumping blood,

Icy air, roaring trees, dancing fire, waving water

Wood smoking, scent of pine and cedar fleeting.

We huddle again, returning from our silences, reconnecting.

And talk about technology and how far behind we have slipped.

As long as you stay on the receding edge, you’ll be okay.

If the dust settles, you know you’ve slipped too far behind.

It is the world we have lived long enough, to live in.

At least some of the time.

But it is here in the dark, by the fire

With the just winter wind and the not-yet-ice water

Grateful for the warmth of our friendship

And the light we are for one another in the dark

That we feel most human,

That we know ourselves.