A warm friend

From time to time it is good to step back from all the familiar things that we take for granted and examine them again. We can re-evaluate their benifits and uses and realise how much they do for us once more without the familiar contempt. Take fire for example. Mankind has had fire for so long, and advanced ourselves (using fire as a tool to do so) beyond our immediate need for it. We still build our houses with fireplaces, but mostly for the pleasant social experience of sitting beside it rather than for heat or cooking or any other purpose. Some of us, however, use it for its most basic purposes. It provides me with heat, food (on occasion I feel like using it to cook, or perhaps, to reheat) and a warm pleasantly crackling friend. It is good to remember to take some small delight in the day to day mundane fixtures of life.

Also I was struck today by the irony of selecting the best pieces of firewood to bust up into kindling.