Nurturing the Flame - An Essay

Back in December I entered an essay contest. The prize - A 42 acre farm in Tennesssee. In my hometown, no less. The winner would be contacted on Christmas Eve. I went over the scenario in my head... What receiving that call on Christmas Eve would feel like. I longed for it.

Unfortunately, per the contest rules, they did not receive enough entries. They refunded the entry fees and now I'm left with this non-winning essay. This was the first essay I had written in a few years. It was a challenging one, because the stakes were high. Nothing came of it, but even so, I am glad I took the time to write it.

Fun fact: Contest rules stated there was 500 word maximum. My word count? 500.

Nurturing the Flame

    Every individual has something special that brings him or her joy. It is a flame within us. It is heart-warming and nourishes our soul. My flame is Tennessee. I have a yearning that is quenched only by the simple wonderments of a country life there. As a child growing up, my family's Tennessee home was heated every winter with a wood furnace. The furnace that kept us warm during the frost-bound winter days was simple, comforting and obligated my family to rely on the natural world. In many ways, country life has the same qualities as that rugged and steadfast furnace: Simplicity, comfort and an attunement to nature.

     Living a country life has a simplicity to it that other lifestyles lack. It's the primitive simplicity of adding wood to our furnace to keep warm. Unlike the hasty pace of city life, it offers a quiet stillness to notice and to live with intention. It's the simplicity reminiscent of times past. It's our great-grandfathers and the trades they diligently learned, or our great-grandmothers and the quilts they hand-stitched with weathered fingers. It's the opportunity to live with a clear mind and an open heart, which is inspired by life's smaller moments. It's choosing to enjoy each season, in weather and in life.

     The wood furnace was a comfort. It was reliable. We fed the fire and it burned to keep us warm. Country life offers me that same comfort. It warms me and provides me contentment. It's a feeling of rightness so strong it makes my heart hurt. Some advice once given to me was to go within your soul and to nurture the tiny flame within, allow it to guide you, allow it to show you the way. My soul faithfully guides me back to the Tennessee countryside. The tiny flame is unwavering. Like the wood furnace, it offers me comfort on cold days.

    Country life presents a certain obligation to honor nature. Only one thing fueled the fire that kept us warm – wood. Acquiring firewood was a family affair, one which we would all set out in my father's pick up truck festooned in layers of warm clothing. We relied on nature, for it was the only thing that would yield the wood we needed. We monitored our resources and planned accordingly. At large, society has no need to take nature into such deep consideration. Everything one would need is readily available. Everything is convenient. Many are so far removed from nature that they take special vacations to merely be in it. Living in the country, being in nature is as simple as being at home.

     My family's wood furnace is a symbol for the country life I know. It's simple, it's comforting, and is attuned to the natural world. This life has taken me on a nomadic journey, a journey which began in Tennessee and will most certainly end there. I will return ever so faithfully to nurture my spirit and that flame that beckons me home.