{"id":605,"date":"2014-05-30T09:28:42","date_gmt":"2014-05-30T09:28:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.stephanie-blog.co.uk\/?p=605"},"modified":"2014-05-30T09:28:42","modified_gmt":"2014-05-30T09:28:42","slug":"k-is-for-kindling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.stephanie-blog.co.uk\/?p=605","title":{"rendered":"K is for Kindling"},"content":{"rendered":"<style type=\"text\/css\"><!--\nP { margin-bottom: 0.21cm; direction: ltr; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); }P.western { font-family: \"Liberation Serif\",\"Times New Roman\",serif; font-size: 12pt; }P.cjk { font-family: \"Droid Sans\"; font-size: 12pt; }P.ctl { font-family: \"FreeSans\"; font-size: 12pt; }\n--><\/style>\n<p>At guide camp I&#8217;ve learnt that, if the night has been dry and quiet, sometimes the embers of yesterday&#8217;s fire can be re-kindled in the morning. It usually takes a lot of puff, or even vigorous fanning, as will as some dry twigs. On the last, but blessedly dry, morning of last summer&#8217;s camp I was first up and could feel warmth in the embers in the fire pit. So I fetched my bag of dry leaves and twigs from the store tent, along with a tray to fan the first tentative flames. As I placed the first twigs on the embers, a curl of smoke rose. I was amazed, but calmly added a few more sticks and soon had a flame, more sticks and then a fire. Then the kettle.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.stephanie-blog.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/fire1A.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-606 aligncenter\" alt=\"fire1A\" src=\"http:\/\/www.stephanie-blog.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/fire1A-300x155.jpg\" width=\"651\" height=\"350\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>In the right place, at the right time, kindling a fire is an easy thing to do. At other times, as I observed above, it can take a lot of breath and determination. Some days, when the weather is damp it is very difficult, and other days it may prove impossible.<\/p>\n<p>On the morning quoted above I was as thrilled as the young guide the evening before who had lit a fire for the first time (and she&#8217;d been to scared to even light a match previously).<\/p>\n<p>I also knew that in a couple of month&#8217;s time I&#8217;d be attending the &#8216;Kindlers&#8217; conference at Woodbrooke. This experience made the metaphor of &#8216;kindling&#8217; was very real to me.<\/p>\n<p>The &#8216;Kindlers&#8217; are an informal Quaker group working to rekindle the depth and passsion of Quaker worship. Their workshops encourage a greater awareness of what we are doing in worship, increased knowledge as to how to do it (instead of assuming that we&#8217;ll all just pick it up as we go along) and a deeper level of sharing than most people are used to. I find that I come away from a workshop enthused to share something of the experience with others. If we all do that then the fire will spread.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.stephanie-blog.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/fire2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-607 aligncenter\" alt=\"fire2\" src=\"http:\/\/www.stephanie-blog.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/fire2-300x195.jpg\" width=\"679\" height=\"451\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>In the process of being a Quaker and a Buddhist, I find myself asking if there is a place for some &#8216;kindling&#8217; amongst the Buddhists I know, as well as amongst the Quakers.<\/p>\n<p>I sense that there could be, but I&#8217;ll remember to breathe mindfully as I blow on the warm embers!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>At guide camp I&#8217;ve learnt that, if the night has been dry and quiet, sometimes the embers of yesterday&#8217;s fire can be re-kindled in the morning. It usually takes a lot of puff, or even vigorous fanning, as will as &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.stephanie-blog.co.uk\/?p=605\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-605","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stephanie-blog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stephanie-blog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stephanie-blog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stephanie-blog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stephanie-blog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=605"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.stephanie-blog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":608,"href":"http:\/\/www.stephanie-blog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605\/revisions\/608"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stephanie-blog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stephanie-blog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stephanie-blog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}