Hearing the rain made me thankful I followed my heart the day before by lighting a fire in the firepit. I’d been wanting to light one all week, but it’s either been too windy, or rainy to light it. There was a pile of sticks inside the pit collected from the yard over the summer and I wanted it empty to be able to give it a good cleaning. Plus, I didn’t want an animal to build a nest inside the pile of sticks and then light it only to destroy a home. During the winter it’s best to keep the firepit empty, so it’s ready to use whenever the mood strikes.

This was more than just an idea to light the pit this week. It was as if my soul longed to sit outside on the bench in front of the warmth of a fire and pulled me toward the idea each day. When the weather prevented me from doing it I felt a twinge of disappointment at the end of the day, but was hopeful that the next day would prove ideal. It’s easy to put off those heart nudges and to see little things that try to prevent us from following the heart. When we hear that still, small voice, it’s a practice to act on the idea without questioning the reason.

Lighting the firepit on a weekday morning made no sense to me, but the heart is rarely logical.

It was around 10:00 am. The neighborhood was quiet and still as I sat on the bench in front of the firepit with a dead lighter. Of course, this is when the lighter I’ve used for months would run out of fluid, but God knows my love of candles and that this woman would have boxes of matches. I crumpled up some old packing paper, slid it underneath the grate and lit the match. The paper took light quickly and I continued feeding the flame with paper until the pile of sticks were ablaze. I had brought along a cup of coffee and a journal received from my sister for Christmas.

As I sat in front of the fiery pit, my heart was full as I scribbled what I’d learned from this experience on a page in the journal. The fire was dying down, but before gathering up my things to return inside I glanced at the page in the journal to see what was written. There wasn’t much there, but the final thought sums it up nicely with, “Thankful…full of thanks.”

Feature Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash