Bonfire

If you are a regular here or if you know me then you may be familiar with my affinity with fire. Some of my fondest childhood memories involve bonfires that we would have in the 'wilderness' behind the fence of our back garden with the challenge of making a fire big enough that you could start another fire the following morning with just the hot ashes - I remember once having a fire on our patio, I could not have been older than 10, the fire got so hot that the concrete slabs expanded and then began to crack up, the pressure got so great that the concrete actually exploded - spitting pieces of red hot concrete in any direction.

The dual nature of fire. It has the power to utterly destroy, take life and cause tragedy ~ yet if treated with respect; brings warmth, produces electricity, cooks your food, heats your water, brings community together and is an awesome sight to behold. One of the lectures this week, entitled 'the fear of God' described God in this manner and it is a metaphor I can get behind, I love fire and I love God - simple enough.

Sitting around a camp fire last week with guitars playing and people singing (unfortunately 'kum by aah'  was not in the repertoire but not to worry there is plenty of time for that with many more fires to come)  brought to mind the togetherness that fire compounds in people and this is one of the main reasons that I like fire so much -I have long held that the best conversations are had round an open fire.

 In fact we were singing 'Bambelela' here which, somewhat ironically, I learned in England before going to South Africa despite it being a traditional South African song.

Oh and another thing on fire - it's not bad for photos  ...

Title font used: 'papyrus'