And it matters.

Makes for a greater constellation.

listen while you read

A R O U N D  T H E  F I R E

Where the light dances

on a circle of faces.

Where the heat toddies

the spirits and all

close-gathered bodies.

Where, since epochs

and eras long before

Native Americans

honored the Four Winds

under new and full moons.

Before the Zoroastrians

lit the Great Fire at Yazda,

that glows on millennia later.

Before the Druids. Bedouins.

Even before Apollo 

and Vulcan, Ogun, Fuji,

Agni and Grannus, Pele

and Mixcoatl.

When early man made fires

in the green-dark hearts

of forests, in the open mouths

of sheltering caves.

Where, across all human time, 

voices, songs, music,

drumbeats and heartbeats rose,

with the sparks, cinders and smoke,

into the sky. Toward the sun by day,

toward the distant, listening stars

by night. Of lilting kinds. Offering,

celebrating, and other, anciently

sacred, wordful, and wordless kinds.

Where some of our own ancestors

once, surely, stood or sat. Meditated,

chanted ~ or danced with wild abandon;

naked or painted, or hatted-and-coated. 

Till the last of the embers died out, 

gave way. To the great silence

and stillness of the Earth around them,

of the vast and mysterious world

folded, and unfolding, around them.

Where we can gather. Go further in.

Invite and embrace our own kindling,

crackling…blazing. From the center

of our beings. Let forth our own fire.

To reach and touch, light, and warm 

every circle of our lives; of our living; 

of all our making,

all our loving.

a thought

Look how simply we can come into

what's humanly elemental, 

universally personal and desirable.

a QUESTION

What circles of light can you create? Can you join? Can you find a greater sense of community, humanity in?

one member said

"Sitting around a fire, and fire-lit faces,

I feel so connected, and heartened."

a call to experience

Gather or enter an intimate circle of friends or good spirits around a fire, or a hearth. Or a candlelit dinner table. Share stories there, maybe some songs, or just being in the moment together.