Dawn is still. The open window brings only the soft hushed sound of a tree swaying back and forth. The air is crisp and cool, verging on cold, and we linger for a moment inside of the warm cocoon of the flannel sheets and comforter. There is a peculiar light filling the room, a grayish green, the color of fog and diluted sunlight flowing through the tree outside. It is the color of other worlds.
It is the color of other lives.
It is the color of a bonfire day. There are times when we wake and in the act of waking we are stripped of the "all that we are" and are pure. From within that purity we can see the world that surrounds us in a thousand intimate details.
We know, instinctively, which of those details are true and which are not. We know which of them are pure and which are not. We know what of them matter and which do not. We know all these things in a moment. We can see in intricate details the web of our lives, the web of our truths and our lies.
In that moment of waking, in that moment of complete clarity, looking at our world through the prism of other worlds and other lives, we know what matters. In that moment we know the meaning and value of our bonfire days. Those days when we take all the baggage we carry, all of the false things and false gods and false hopes and false desires, and we pile them in the middle of the street and burn them. Burn them all and walk away from them as pure as we can possibly be.
That is a bonfire day. They are rare. There are a thousand reasons we do not strike that match. The principle one, the one that stays our hand again and again and again is this. We are human. We are not pure. We are not true. We are simply what we are. Wrapped inside of us is the pure and the impure, the true and the not true. It is simply an illusion. We are tangled and tumbled in our lives. We might dream of serenity, of peace, of perfection - but it is just a dream.
We move through the bonfire day back into "the world that is" and we tumble and get tangled and that is a good thing. That is what we were meant to do. That is who we are. We are creatures of joy and sorrow. We are creatures of desire and denial. We are these wonderful creatures that do our best to just make do. Somewhere inside of all that, all the tumbling and tangling, we have these spectacular and magical moments that make it all worth while.
We endure the suffering and indignities of life so that we can experience those fleeting moments of sublime grace, where ever we find them. So we may dream of bonfire days but in the end we warm ourselves by familiar fires and enjoy a cup of coffee. This is good thing. That is the value of a bonfire day, to remind us that a familiar fire and a cup of coffee and the company of friends is a good thing.
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