Last night I fell into the fire
I was walking the perimeter
Of earth and flame
When the stone beneath me trembled
And my balance was thrown
Into the red-orange glow
And I will never be the same.
My first response was pain.
My second response
Almost immediately after
Was gratitude.
What an intense warning
And sharp awakening
Of the senses
And awareness.
My hands caught me,
They took the fall
Into the fire for me.
Yes, my hands were burning
But they were also saving me.
The wave of gratitude
Washed over me
To cool down my burning hands.
How can I be anything but grateful
For having hands there to feel burned,
For it not being much worse,
For the running water near me,
For the wisdom to know
That this pain will pass,
And that there is a lesson behind it.
What a rush of happiness
To know that this is an opportunity
Calling for me to listen and learn
From the heat of a fiery burn.
After coming to a quick calm
I looked into the ash
And saw my phone sizzling on coals
And I’m thankful again
That it was my phone and not me
That got cooked by the fire
And I’m grateful
That I had a phone
To sacrifice to the fire as I fell.
That night sleep was scared to visit me
As my hands felt on fire
And the burning awareness
Kept me in conscious awakeness.
As I lay there in pain
I knew I would be tired tomorrow
And I knew to accept it.
After all,
Falling into a circle of rapid change
Takes a lot of energy.
The next day I woke up
Excited to have slept 5 hours
And that my hands were no longer on fire.
I peeled the melted case off my phone
Put it on a charger just to try
And to my surprise the phone was revived
And just like me, perfectly alive.
The message in the lesson
Will be revealed continuously
As time goes on
As seeds turn into trees turn into embers.
So I honor this moment
With new scars etched into my skin
And thankfulness within
For a burn I’ll always remember.
As I fell into the fire,
I fell into gratitude.
