AN EMPTY FIRE PIT

In Florida oak leaves fall in March and as I was cleaning up our backyard I paused a moment to sit… to take a break and relax around our old and empty fire pit. As I sat catching my breath…suddenly in my mind memories started to soar and that fire pit, empty only a moment ago….was not empty any more. I saw our children and grandchildren toasting marshmallows…eating s’mores I saw them chasing fireflies, and listened to all the things in life they were wishing for. I saw myself as a boy around a campfire toasting marshmallows…eating s’mores. As I watched myself chasing fireflies I wondered… what kind of things back then…I might have been wishing for. But that was long ago…and over time my memories blur. When I think back to those childhood wishes…I can’t remember what they were. Watching a much younger me at a campfire with my family sitting around I imagine, being young, my wishes were more superficial…less profound. Or maybe, just maybe…if I could hear me…I would hear myself profess how I wanted to be a kind and gentle person…how I wished for happiness. Perhaps I wished for a family who loves me.. to say or do a few things that may never be forgotten… for friends who make me smile…and for grandchildren to spoil rotten. If I could travel back in time…if only for a moment or two I’d go back and tell that younger me, “Don’t worry, little me, someday…your wishes will come true.” As I returned to my backyard duties… as the latest flow of memories come to an end… I had to smile… knowing how a fire pit… once it’s known love… will never be totally empty again.