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<\/a><\/p>\nI’d spent some time earlier in the day writing down on strips of paper the things I wanted to release with the outgoing year.\u00a0 One by one I fed them into the fire with a prayer for release.\u00a0 It felt very cleansing and purging.\u00a0 Every so often a cloud of smoke would wash over me and I took that as response to my requests.\u00a0 It was synchronistic that at a particular request, which was rather difficult to release, it was suddenly midnight and all the fireworks and whooping and hollering was in the air.\u00a0 I took that as a personal sign that that issue\u00a0had finally been released.<\/p>\n
I like to poke the fire\u00a0as it burns down.\u00a0 I like to watch as the thin layer of gray ash form on top, until it looks barely glowing underneath.\u00a0 It can look like the fire is dying, that there is barely any life to it left.\u00a0 But once\u00a0I stir the ashes and breathe air into it, it bursts once again into flames.<\/p>\n
I think how like the fire are we, we settle down and begin to take on that ashen hue and it looks as though we are just barely staying alive, just waiting for the final embers to burn us down.\u00a0 Sure, every so often breath of fresh air comes along and a flame will dance up for a short while, but for the most part, we let a fine layer of ash begin to cover us until we don’t even remember there was ever a fire burning underneath it all. But just like the ashes barely glowing at the bottom of the firepit, someone can come along and stir us up enough that we burst into flame.\u00a0 Someone or something can inspire us.\u00a0 The definition of “inspire” is “to breathe life into, to draw breath into.”\u00a0 As I sat stirring last night’s fire, I was letting air into it, and where the air was introduced, the flames danced up for me.<\/p>\n If there is no one or nothing to stir us up, we can stir our own fire.\u00a0 We can inspire ourselves.\u00a0 We can do this through discipline and creative visualization.\u00a0 We can schedule daily sessions to play the What If Game.<\/p>\n What if the best possible thing happened to me? Imagining and pretending is very powerful.\u00a0 “Pre” from “before”, and “tend” from “intend”.\u00a0 So when we are imagining, we are intending ahead of time what we would like to experience.\u00a0 Creative visualization is a way to stir the flames within you, a method to attract thoughts which will then spark new ideas, which will then open new roads for you\u00a0to choose from.<\/p>\n That’s the problem, when we are turning ashen and gray living in our own little\u00a0rut, we can’t see any new paths that interest us enough to step onto\u00a0them and explore what may lie further up ahead.\u00a0 When we discipline ourselves to meditate and\u00a0pre-pave\u00a0via creative visualization, we are taking a step onto the\u00a0path.\u00a0 And it’s important to know that\u00a0we will\u00a0make relevant new discoveries\u00a0down that path, even though stepping into that journey began as our own\u00a0creation in our mind.<\/p>\n You don’t need to make a fire in a pit or in a chimenea, although for me that’s the most powerful.\u00a0 You can also meditate on a candle flame.\u00a0 You can create a small meditation altar in front of a comfortable seat, facing a wall.\u00a0\u00a0A mirror at the wall would be nice, and you could place 1 or 2 or 3 candles there and gaze into them for a short while.\u00a0 At first your mind will be filled with all the things you should be doing instead, but simply release each thought as it comes up and return your attention to the flame.<\/p>\n Watch the flame dance and move with the air and take a few deep breaths.\u00a0 As you exhale, control the exhale so it is slow and strong and breathe it out toward the candle.\u00a0 You don’t want to\u00a0blow the candle out, you want to just gently move the candle flame with your breath, ever so slightly.<\/p>\n Do a deep inhale and a strong, slow exhale.\u00a0 That’s one key to meditation: if you control the exhale, the inhale will take care of itself.\u00a0\u00a0So take a deep inhale followed by strong, slow exhale.\u00a0 Do that several times and your mind chatter will begin to slip away.\u00a0 With each thought that comes to mind, offer it to the flame and release it to be consumed in the fire.\u00a0 Any illusory thoughts about yourself, offer them to the flame and release them to be consumed.\u00a0 Any resistant thoughts of anyone for any reason, offer them to the flame to be released.<\/p>\n I sat at the firepit long after the\u00a0fire had\u00a0died and ate my\u00a0midnight supper of butternut squash and fresh corn, and thought about how good 2008 had been for me.\u00a0 My cats sat stationed\u00a0across from each other\u00a0nearby, and we were visited by 3 raccoons.\u00a0 The two younger ones were brave and reckless and if they came too close, I’d toss sticks at them.\u00a0 I like to let wildlife stay wild.<\/p>\n Shortly after midnight I crawled into my little lean-to tent and fell asleep.\u00a0\u00a0Sometime later I could hear the armadillos rooting around in the ground for all the grubs and worms that keep my soil so lush.\u00a0 At one point, a\u00a0fat armadillo walked up and nudged me awake.\u00a0 Thankfully he ran into my bent knees; had he poked that snout in my face it would definitely have startled me.<\/p>\n Tell\u00a0me about it.\u00a0 I’d like to hear from you.<\/p>\n RELATED:\u00a0 Last evening at the firepit<\/a><\/p>\n
\nWhat would that be?
\nWhere would I be?
\nWhy would I be there?
\nWhat would I do there?
\nWho would be there with me?<\/p>\n<\/a>So I had an awesome new year’s eve.\u00a0 How about you?<\/p>\n
\n<\/a>Roughing it in my own woods<\/a>
\n<\/a>I spent full moon night out under the stars<\/a>
\nWinter Solstice at the firepit<\/a>
\nSpirit told me to ask Jane if she had a tent for me and she did<\/a>
\nCamping In My Woods Defrags My Stress <\/a>
\nA New Crop Of Baby Hawks and the Bonfire Metaphor<\/a><\/p>\n