The Bonfire in the Garden
A Tiny Life Moment of losing control
The moment
The fire still looked beautiful, but it was getting out of control as it roared very close to an old sweet Chestnut tree, by the side of the house. The dry leaves crackled and popped and the twigs snapped. We had put too much lighter fluid in the bonfire. For a moment, we knew we had lost control. If the fire jumped to the tree, there was no telling how quickly it could move to the house. My sister grabbed a water hose, I grabbed my phone ready to dial 999 and we both stood still, watching the fire, ready.
Luckily within two minutes, it burned itself out. Relieved, we exhaled.
The reflection
As I reflected on the moment, I thought about the real fear I felt when I thought the fire was going out of control. Soon it would be out of my hands and something terrible could happen. One minute, the fire was in control, the next minute it was not. Although my sister and I were ready. We both felt we should have managed it better in the first place and not let it get out of control.
Things don’t get out of control unexpectedly. Most times there is a process, a history, some background. There are warning signs, actions taken by ourselves or others.
There are times we had the situation in control, or we thought we had it in control. Perhaps we were careless, or made assumptions or plain foolish.
Life is like a fire. Relationships are like fire. Our health is like fire. Our weight, money, work, friends, all like fire can get out of control if we don’t pay attention to the small sparks. It was a quick moments and these were my quick thoughts, I’d like to read what others think,
Takeways
- Watch out for the small sparks, they have the power to ignite a roaring fire
- Things don’t just happen
- Look for help, when things spiral out of control