Retreat is Sweet

Friends,

In gratitude for the slow but sure progress our public life seems to be making, and out of respect for the critical notion of self care, AND FINALLY, because the season of thanks and gifting will soon be upon us, and deserves its own caring time of planning and preparation, I am taking several days of retreat.

I am guided often by the poem below, which speaks to our deep need for space — all kinds of space — in order to maintain the inner flame.  May it warm you through the week, and perhaps inspire you, too, to pause and rest.

 

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 would.

 

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,

the we can come to see how

it is fuel, and 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