Record cold has kept me in front of my wood-burning stoves far more than I’d like this winter – and cutting/busting wood more than I like – but in the flames I have been compelled to stoke and watch burn have made me consider lessons found inside the firebox.
Among them:
Nothing burns as fast as we wish, despite our wish to banish the cold. Nor can we hurry that demanding class in algebra, the menial job, the difficult child, the funeral for a loved one or friend. Nor does the fire burn as slow as we wish – the summer night with loved ones, the satisfaction of a job well done, the dreams we fan flames to, the life we constantly try to stoke.
Nothing burns as hot as we wish – whether cold, ignorance, impatience, bigotry on hatred, they all hold on with the grip of steel. To melt them seems to take far too much time, but stopping the effort is no option.
We cannot force a square peg in a round hole, or the night log into a space not made for it. All of us cannot be Babe Ruth, Thomas Edison, Clint Eastwood, George Carlin, Lady Gaga, Abraham Lincoln, Barack Obama or Mother Teresa. We must gauge each opportunity and set our sights on what is right for us and those around us. We must consider what we can do in the scheme of things, where our talents lay, and not fall victim to forcing the wrong log into some preconceived hole in the firebox.