The Perfect Campfire

When I was younger I would agonize…oh how I’d aspire to pile the kindling and logs just right…and build the perfect fire. I’d light and relight, I’d blow…I’d spread the wood apart I even prayed to the god of fire to get those flames to start… But I was not very good at it…although in my mind I could conceive it when it came to the perfect campfire…I never could achieve it. Over the years my skills improved…to the point I can sit back now and inquire What are the ingredients? What are the pieces? What make up the perfect fire? Is it the color of the flames? How the fire ebbs and flows? Is it the sound of the wood as it crackles or the smell of smoke on your clothes? Is it the warmth silently emitted… or how its luminescence lights the night or how, when the flames depart for the evening, the fire breathes in light? All these are important…but the perfect fire for me has more to do with the people around it…our friends and family. It’s telling stories…smiling and laughing while sitting in the great outdoors It’s the children running to and fro, toasting marshmallows, making s’mores. It’s how time seems to blend together…as the mind is navigating memories we’ve made in the past with the new ones we’re creating… It’s how the night envelopes the fire…so the only ones I see… are those…for that brief moment…who are sharing the fire with me… When I was younger it thought the perfect fire couldn’t be lit… that it was just a myth now I know it all depends on the people I’m sharing it with.