Fan The Flame
Scout Water, White Man Juice, Magic Water, Gasoline, Diesel, propane - Pick your accelerant; pick your terminology.
Rekindling the fireplace the next day has taken on all sorts of "life affirming" activities. One eyebrow, no eyebrows, no arm hair, no hair at all - simply the scoreboard of how good you are at completing the task.
But is that the “Hygge” way?
How can we get last evening's ambiance back up and running without the adrenaline rush, the firetruck visit and most importantly without the death stare from the neighbour?
Here are four simple steps you can use to become an expert at gently coaxing your coal bed back to life:
- Gather the remaining coals. Down in the sheltered confines of the ashes there will be some small chunks of charred hardwood remnants. I like to use a small garden tine rake to pull them from the ash. Pile them up together so they can help each other attain their critical combustion temperature.
- Expose them to fresh air. Pull back the insulating ash powder from the base of the coals and allow fresh oxygen to reach them. They will begin to glow and create a small amount of convection, bringing in more fresh air.
- Add new tinder. Now is the time to introduce some fresh fuel. No, not gas - some twigs, scrap wood off cuts or split kindling; preferably anything from the softwood family.
- Fan the flame. As the coals heat up they burn off the oxygen in the area adjacent to themselves. It takes a moment to replace this with fresh air resulting in a continual smolder. Introduce some forced draft. Bellows, waving a piece of card or blowing into the coals provides the necessary surplus of oxygen to transition from smoldering to full combustion.
And 'Voila' you have a new fire, sans the alarm bells. Now to get after cooking breakfast.
At this time of year we acknowledge an event, recorded in annals of history and detailed in the holy scriptures, that is a pivotal point for the purpose and plight of mankind. The death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth.
This event creates a new and miraculous discussion about what is possible, preferable and imminent for each one of us born onto this earth. We all have a deep seeded, inherent awareness that there is more to life than meets the human eye. Regardless of how we try to explain it away, and regardless of what we profess to "believe" we make daily decisions that are designed to improve our life now and appease the possible future consequences. Karma, payback, justice, spirits, future beneficiaries, heaven, hell, purgatory, reincarnation, whatever the motivation we cannot completely eliminate our gut feeling that there just might exist the possibility of something after this life and subsequently hedge our bets by applying some form of morality to our present decisions and actions.
This "feeling" we have is a remnant of something instilled in us from the very beginning. Each subsequent generation is born with it and it cannot be genetically phased out. It can, however, be dulled. Ignored, rejected, dismissed, minimized, hated, slandered, trivialized, ridiculed or, even punished; All these methods of dulling our (and our society's) inherent morality have not been able to successfully eliminate it.
The Apostle Paul instructs Timothy to "... fan into flames the spiritual gift God gave you..."* even in all of us, even those of you that do not yet understand what gift you have received, it is apparent in that small nagging voice, that angel on your shoulder, that inherent drive to self-preservation: there's something more.
Now, fan that feeling into a flame:
Gather the remaining embers of your God given instinct to seek and believe.
Expose those thoughts, feelings and convictions to fresh air. Pull back the negative and smothering voices of this world. Let the Holy Spirit breathe onto them and get them smoldering,
Add new tinder to the pile. Read the history contained in the scriptures, seek new and faith filled teaching from people who are on fire for their God.
Fan the flame into a raging passion. Don't settle for a cold damp smoldering mess, but dedicate attention to rebuilding the woodpile of the faith that is inherent within you so your fire will not only sustain you but also heat those around you and cast a wide light into the darkness that has become this present world.
* 2 Timothy 1:5-10
