2015 started cold and clear for us here in Maine. I love to start or end the year with an outside campfire. There is just something so cleansing about a fire. Plus, it is a good way to have fun at home. I spent the morning cooking. I had a big pot soup on the cookstove along with duck egg white meringue cookies & duck egg yolk frittata. Pretzels, peanuts, and pickles where the campfire snacks. After all my cooking I managed to get out to the fire for a cup of tea and a few moments alone. (DH had got it going while I was in the kitchen) It was nice to have some quiet and reflect on the past year or rather just stare at the fire and try not to think or plan. Just be with the moment. Feel the heat of the fire before me and the cold on my back. It is the best kind of meditation.
Later I was joined by my son and his pal, my husband and a good neighbor friend. A small lovely gathering with good conversation and laughter. The fire went into the night. DH & I ended the evening with a bottle of wine and embers. Another year begins. Another day begins. Another moment begins ~~~
Letters swallow themselves in seconds.
Notes friends tied to the doorknob,
transparent scarlet paper,
sizzle like moth wings,
marry the air.
So much of any year is flammable,
lists of vegetables, partial poems.
Orange swirling flame of days,
so little is a stone.
Where there was something and suddenly isn’t,
an absence shouts, celebrates, leaves a space.
I begin again with the smallest numbers.
Quick dance, shuffle of losses and leaves,
only the things I didn’t do
crackle after the blazing dies.
