Fired Up

The holidays are over; the trick of cramming 5 days of work into less than 3 for weeks on end is now behind us.

And while I love the holy days, which never fail to bring me calm in the hours they are here (the gift of not being a pulpit rabbi!), the preparations and catch-up that frame them do tend to make the season a bit, shall we say, frantic.

It is, then, I will admit, often with a bit of relief that I bid them goodbye.

This year, just as we left the awe-filled realm of the mythic time of Tishrei and began crawling back into the routine of the everyday, the weather changed. Right on cue, after we returned to the world of leftovers, reheated food and eating indoors, fall's welcome cool set in.

This morning, in fact, it was downright cold. And it promises to be in the 40's again tomorrow.

Which can mean only one thing: time to fire up the stove.

I promise not to regale you too much this year with my wood cutting, splitting, trimming escapades.

But as I come out from under my holiday load, and return to my blog, I did want to share a photo of our first burn of the season.

With this simple act of setting our wood ablaze, my husband and I officially move from our "summer home" (the airy southern-looking sitting room) to our "winter home" (northerly and nestled up against the stove).

The move gives us a whole new perspective on the ways we live. It breaks patterns that stultify and recaptures the majesty and magic of "hearth" that our ancestors knew.

Some people swap out their summer clothes for their winter clothes. Some buy new shoes. We swap chairs.

Seasons signal necessary change amid the comforting constant. They bring new ways to be, to grow, to rest, to revive.

Seasons can signal us to change as well; to remove the routines that threaten to make us stale, encourage us to shift things around so that we too might better be, grow, rest and revive. It is good both for ourselves and for those people and things that are dearest to us.

So enjoy the brisk freshness of fall, and don't forget to change things up a bit.