Waiting by the Fire

There are those who look to the warm sun as it moves through the heavens and embrace it’s warmth. They look to the east for the sunrise and find hope, they look to the west and lament it’s departure by seeing the comming of the darkness that is as much humanity as the warmth of mid-day. It is when they look at the cold evening, look to the harsh mountains covered in snow with gales whipping at the highest points that they hesitate. It is there in the waxing and waining moonlight that the real question rises.

There in that place, taking in that view, some seek the shelter and comfort of a safe haven, with a hearth fire to keep them warm. They seek company for companionship to assure them that the sun will return in the morning hours. They are comforted and seek to sleep, trying to avoid the strange noises carried on the harsh winds comming from the mountains. They choose not to venture into that place of hardship, and while they have hardships of their own that they undertake and work diligently to overcome, they remain quiet in the presence of the primal chill that shivers their bones in those odd moments that the wind touches them.

Comfort in the light is a great and noble thing. It can elevate a man to understand the universe in many ways. It can warm the soul, and show the truth of many things, things that we embrace seeing. The work is hard, and rewarding, easily seen in the light of day. Many hands make the work easier, and wisdom resides here.

For those of us on the mountain, looking over the world in the cold of night, your hearth fires create a new set of constelations so that the earth mirrors the heavens, as above where the lights of celestial bodies plod thier course through the night sky, so below in the unmoving dots of man made light peeking through windows. It can be beautiful to see.

But the light from below doesn’t move at night, and so it becomes different from the stars. It parts from the order of the universe in that one place, and there, that alone touches my sorrow, only because I have learned in my time on the mountain, that there is much that is missed when you wait by a fire for dawn.