The spaces in-between...

I first came across this poem in my Literacy course and made so many connections to my teaching, and the balance between teaching and home life. As I sit here, in a quiet moment after dropping Kai off at daycare and before errands begin, the words come back to me:

Fire

What makes a fire burn
is a space between the logs,
a breathing space.
Too much of a good thing,
too many logs
packed in too tight
can douse the falmes
almost as surely
as a pail of water would.

So building fires
requires attention
to the spaces in between,
as much as to the wood.

When we are able to build
open spaces
in the same way
we have learned
to pile on the logs,
then we can come to see how
it is fuel, and absence of the fuel
together, that make fire possible.

We only need to lay a log
lightly from time to time.
A fire
grows
simply because the space is there,
with openings
in which the flame
that knows just how it wants to burn
can find its way.

-Judy Brown

Although it is not January and it is not the traditional time to set New Year's resolutions, I am going to do just that right now.  I will take more time to find and enjoy the spaces in between.  I hope you can do the same.