The ember leapt into the glowing air, dancing in hypnotizing, quick spirals in the safety of his fire. The heat filled him with happiness and it thought “I will never leave this place.”
Then it felt a subtle nudge from the breeze interrupt his blissful dance. The gentle draft pushed it away from the safety of the fire. “How cold and lonely it is out here,” thought the ember as the wind left it floating in the open sky.
An old leaf floated downward in a contented side-to-side dance past the ember, having been plucked from a branch by the same breeze. “I once gave shade to those warm by the fire. Now I am to become the soil that strengthens the roots of my mother tree. The secret is to remember the good where you came from and see the blessing of where you’re going.”
The goodness of the dying leaf felt familiar and warm to the lonely ember and it wanted to hear more. But the leaf drifted into the flickering shadows on the barren ground and was silent.
The ember was bitterly sad at the wind for blowing the good leaf from it’s branch and for taking the ember from the fire.
“Why do you take away comfort and happiness?”, the ember called into the night breeze.
“What do you mean?”, asked the night breeze in return. “Do you regret meeting the old leaf?”
“No,” said the ember. “But you ought to have let him alone! And me too!”
“Hmmm,” contemplated the night breeze. “The leaf and I knew each other well and danced together in our youth.”
“But how could you have taken it from it’s home?”
“It was time for it to find a new home,” said the night breeze. “And you as well. Where are you going little ember?”
“Upward, into the empty sky,” said the anxious ember. “The sky is no place for an ember, so dark and cold.”
“No?”, asked the night breeze. “Do you see the child by your fire? She is looking at you. She watched you dance and twirl in the heat of the fire and when I pushed you out, her gaze followed you. Now she looks up at you and sees where you are going.”
The ember stared into the wide eyes of the child. They reflected the ember in the sky and it knew the child felt happy watching him dance.
“Now you look up, little ember,” said the night breeze.
As the ember slowly turned it saw the night sky opening beyond the old leaf’s tree. The sky was filled with so many tiny points of light it would never be able to count them all. It was not alone in the night sky.
The child’s gaze fixed skyward as the little ember darkened. He descended in a final contented side-to-side dance to the ground beside the old leaf.
“Hello, friend,” greeted the old leaf.
(Written April 2015)
Bribunk 