Dear Oak,
You decided to make a fire on top of Rainbow Mountain today. You gathered the big stones in a circle to contain the fire. Fire is hungry. She will eat whole neighborhoods, houses, cars, trees, plants and whole forests. So you built a circle of stone to keep her small.
You gathered tinder and rubbed sticks together to bring fire. Then you fed her small sticks to help her grow inside the circle. Later, you added logs. When fire had turned the wood to ash and was at her hottest, you put on a pot of arroz con pollo with some greens to cook.
You were the fire tender. Someone needs to guard the fire to make sure she stays in her circle, that she doesn’t go out before the food is done, and that she is out cold before you walk away. Fire is hungry, so someone always watches her. We ask the fire tender before adding wood to make her grow or making fire soup to be sure she is out, not even the smallest, tiniest, speck of ember left. Fire is hungry, so the fire tender is careful to make sure she is all the way out.
To make fire soup, you add water. Someone added the water when you said. Steam and smoke billowed and rose. We put our hands over where the fire had been. We could still feel the heat, so we added more water. We used a stick to stir and stir. We felt. Still warm. We added and stirred until we could put our hands in the ashes. There was no hot in the ashes anywhere.
Our hands were black with soot, so we washed them.
Love,
Teacher Michelle