fireside

"Love, like fire, can only reveal its brightness
On the failure and beauty of burnt wood."

phillippe jaccottet


now, i began to understand why campfires hold such simple significance for many of us...a hearth that gathers friends, warms the common chill and breaks into song, the close of another day. as fires burn, some are content merely to sit and listen to the cosy crackle that a blend of fire and burnt wood brings. fire, like most of earth's elements, carries a spiritual lore of its own. somehow, their traces bore deep into our own human longing.

what are the burnt woods in my life right now?
what loves have burnt so deep that what remains behind
may soon become light?

december first 2008

we reflected on the profile of our college students during a recent staff retreat. these were some of the self-portraits they produced.



i don't want to become so jaded as to disregard these transitions that students go through. i don't wish to forget that i was once on the road and am still recharting other directions to a desired destiny.



all these years, the temptation is to abandon my north-star and set sail for regions that are true, only to my own bearings. i need to pause once more, not just because of advent but what my poor witness to Christ has become on this new journey. there are days when i could not even recognise myself anymore. i am a pilgrim for my own sake, no longer dependent on God for my present or future needs. i don't know why i have turned this way. perhaps, my current profession holds the key to unlock what i've shut.



Lord, every passing generation brings with it new dreams and hopes. help me to always remember what it means to journey with my students and to care for those i've been entrusted to guide and teach. may my doing become your form of giving so that we may experience the joy of new life by the different kinds of conflict or knowledge we meet or gain. teach me to rediscover the joy of teaching even as i leave familiar shores for the new...your voice becoming light as i seek beyond the shadows clouding my heart.


amen