Fire; contained and in control, it evicts a sense of comfort, a sense of security and welcome, but set it free? No, at the mere thought of setting it free for most of us our minds quickly turn to destruction, chaos and despair. Images of flames dancing across the landscape wild and unencumbered, only submitting to the wind. The sky is blackened, the sun blotted out, and the landscape that is left behind seems distraught and hopeless.
Yet almost immediately, out of the ebony and ash covered ground a bright green shoot pitches itself towards the sky. In fact, in a few days the entire panorama is covered by the renewal of bright green new growth, full of nutrients having been fertilized by the ashes of last seasons withered fauna that having fully served its purpose, is utilized in totality as a starting point for those to come after. Africa, in all her majesty, even through the chaos of destruction can find the calm through the renewing of life each season. As imperative as the rains, fire is equally as necessary to rejuvenate what has been in preparation to what is to come.
