I am one of the few folks who still heat their home with wood, living here in this very rural region. While others choose to warm themselves with more modern means, I cling to my wood, letting it teach me the fundamental lessons it will, in its own time and way.
Wood is such a part of the earth, that releasing its trapped energy for heat, handling each wood stick, connects those lucky users to the earth and creates such a sense of oneness with the earth that if those users will listen, those souls will not only be warmed by the cozy heat of burning wood, but they'll also absorb wood's lessons as well.
I was standing one cold day, enjoying that sense of oneness and warmth from the wood, mesmerized by watching the kindly, fiery tongues of flame lick and caress each piece of wood, when the wood taught me its most valuable lesson.
A wood fire is like a good marriage: Two sticks of wood, properly placed and nurtured, are all it takes to build a fire. Like marriage partners, both wood sticks must be very close, physically touching and joined to each other, but with an air space around each one so each stick can breathe. Without that space, the fire, like marriage, smothers out and dies; the fire cannot survive because each stick must have that space to claim as its own to thrive.
Equally vital to each wood stick in the survival of the fire is the dependence each stick has on the other. The wood sticks, like marriage partners, need each other to make that fire burn hot and bright. The sticks must be close enough to nurture each other, or the fire will only burn for a short time, then smolder and die because the sticks lack that vital sustenance each stick gives the other.
Both sticks must lie firmly down on the grating and not protrude at some odd angle if that fire is to burn properly, like people firmly grounded and committed to making that marriage work. Neither can that soothing flame be maintained if one stick crushes the other, overpowering the other and ignoring the other's right to exist equally and freely in that fire.
The good wood fire, like a good marriage, heats more than just the sticks in the fire. The warmth emanating from that fire spreads to all those around, calming them, nurturing them, shielding them from some of life's harsh coldness, allowing them to bask in the gentle, loving heat, generated by only those two sticks.
