Zen Pyro

It says plainly in the instruction manual for a kerosene heater, for those who take time to read it, that you are supposed to turn off the heater before refilling it. I will admit, I have often violated this safety precaution. Now, I will share with you my observations of this infraction. Each time you squeeze the hand pump the flame rises about a quarter to a half inch. I imagine if you pumped it fast enough you could probably raise the flame to a significant length or intensity necessary to make the heater explode. So, if you do this, and I don’t recommend it, then you should probably go slow with it.
Fire is probably most people’s favorite element; bonfires, cooking food, keeping warm. Water, I imagine would be the second; swimming, bathing, or just cooling down in general. People who prefer air tend to be…. breathing it so, enough said about that and, there probably isn’t a farmer out there who doesn’t have a lithomancer’s appreciation of the earth with passive regards to the other elements and or, their byproduct. 
Anyone who has kept up with this blog knows that my favorite element is air but, my daughter came to the same conclusions about fire that I did, on her own, which made for interesting conversation and, that observation is, that fire, has all the fundamentals of a living organism.
It consumes; wood, coal, houses, boats, cars. Anything that will burn.
It excretes; ashes, smoke.
It breathes; fire has to have air to live so, it would be safe to say that fire is fond of this element. It can consume earth as well but, it only changes water.
It reproduces; it makes more fire in an asexual way. Though there are instances where two separate fire will “hook up.”
If a person could find a way to add self-awareness to that, then fire would prove to be a very dangerous adversary but, to know fire and understand it, to be on a Zen level with it, anticipate it, control it even, is to have some spiritual connection to it and, if you don’t have in your grasp some aspect of this then…. You should probably put out your kerosene heater before you refill it. You probably should anyway.

Salutation pending
Johnny R Draper

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