Camp Fire Songs of Hope

      It was one of those wonderful Minnesota summer evenings with just a hint of coolness in the air begging for a gathering around a fire. The warmth of friends, conversation and the fire taunted even the moon to delay its scheduled path. I stood at my back door watching my dogs and basking in the glow of the neighbor’s fire, muffled conversations and laughter. All was right with the world. As I lay down to sleep that night I vividly saw the fire’s glow only now it was not a beacon of human and nature’s comingled and inspiring light it was a threat. The wind had picked up and all I could think about was whether they made sure the fire was truly out so that the surrounding trees, leaves and grass would not welcome a gypsy spark. Sleep became chaotic vigilance over whether the fire was quenched.
      Tonight it is winter in Minnesota and no such fires are burning. I recall Ayn Rand’s words "Do not let your fire go out, spark by irreplaceable spark, in the hopeless swamps of the approximate, the not-quite, the not-yet, the not-at-all. Do not let the hero in your soul perish, in lonely frustration for the life you deserved, but have never been able to reach. Check your road and the nature of your battle. The world you desired can be won. It exists, it is real, it is possible, it is yours.” I whisper a prayer for me, for all of us that we would be so vigilant with the fires in our souls which know not the seasons and burn only for hope, light and life.

[Ayn Rand "Atlas Shrugged"]