The only thing missing was fire.
There was air,
which on this day was
cool enough to not be hot
and warm enough to not be cold.
In a word: perfect.
And there was water,
a creek flowing in stillness in some places,
swirling over the rocks and fallen trees in others,
forming small eddies along the shore.
Refreshing --
in sight and sound.
And earth,
formed as clay-mud along the shore
and as the rocks upon which we stepped.
Those rocks created
a natural bridge from which we could see more closely
that water
and the forms made in it
by the fallen trees.
But fire?
That which, yes, can destroy,
but the flames of which can also
set seeds from the forest and the grasslands
into the air,
into the charred soil,
to begin growth
again.
Fire,
which gives warmth
around which we gather
and sometimes
we simply hold in the calm and stillness
in our heart.
On this day as we walked on
a wooded path
among the elements
along the shore
of a wide and expressive creek,
perhaps fire was present after all.
This experience and these photographs were captured at Sweetwater Creek State Park in Douglas County, Georgia, USA. They are the copyright Susanne Swing Thompson.
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