A Real Fireplace

In our new apartment, we have a real fireplace. Not one that uses electricity or even gas, but a real wood fireplace. I must admit that I am kind of addicted to making fires. I always have been, but now I have one at my finger tips all the time.

The thing about a real fireplace is that it doesn't just happen. You cannot just click a remote or turn a handle. You have to find wood, find starter sticks and paper or pine cones, you have to poke at it and work on it.

Sometimes it happens really quick and nice, and other times it doesn't even really work at all.

It started me thinking about relationships. Relationships don't just happen (much to Facebook's and Myspace's dismay). They take effort, giving, pain, sacrific, poking, and love. You have to work on them. Much like a gas fireplace, we have tried to replace the hard work of real fire, with an easy substitute; we have replaced real relationships with easy substitutes.

Think about all your relationships.  What are the ones you really work on them? The ones that you truely spend time and effort on?  How much more to they mean to you and probably to them?  This is not just because they are special, but it is because they are real...

I recommend making a fire (in a safe place) sometime, a real fire. See how you have to keep an eye on it, keep working at it. Maybe it will lead you to rethink your relationships...