Campfire Team
On a mountain, with a billion stars overhead, incredible friends, delicious food and warm beverage, while sitting around a Breeo campfire is a slice of heaven come down. The smokeless fire pit is designed with the logs sitting along the outside wall, opposite of traditional campfire that are built from a center. A small metal shelf sits along the top rim of the wall and is perfect for grilling up Hot, Hot Lover seasoned shrimp. Because of the unique way the fire pit is set up, the person sitting by the fire is unable to see the log closest to them. Their view of the fire is the log that sits in front of the person sitting across from them.
Chris, the Breeo captain, in order to maintain a perfect flame, asks the person sitting across from him to report on his log. The captain then proceeds to take this concept into a profound, spiritual conversation. To maintain this campfire at its highest level and because you can’t even see your log, the value lies in taking responsibility of reporting on your friend’ s log.
The night before, our team of elk rutting seekers, spent the evening listening to some songwriters who shared their personal life experiences through stories and songs, yet another slice of heaven. It appeared that most people in the crowd knew these performers to a much higher degree than we did but that didn’t mean they enjoyed the intimate occasion at a greater degree. The gifted musicians revealed much about who they were, but the whole truth was exposed more in what wasn’t said… it became apparent that the leader on the stage was suffering. Through his language of insulting famous performers, indirectly disrespecting his father, who joined him on stage, with impressive fiddle improvisation, and the frustration he expressed by the audience’s request to invite his wife to sing, we sensed something was wrong. As the night moved on his words began to slur and all he cared to do was play more music and self medicate. It was if he was in his own little world, blinded to the people around him who cared for him greatly, the ones closest who held much more information about the struggle he was in, the ones who were attempting to keep his log lit. We were just spectators.
This aging, talented song writer, measured his accomplishments through a lense of comparison, and therefore was blinded to the gifts and talents that sat inside of him. Unaccomplished dreams had him stuck in unhealed grief. His mind could only see his log and nothing more… the family and friends that are trying to help him by fanning the flame, aren’t able to get through the darkness in order to reveal the truth of who he is…
He is loved! And yet he can’t feel it…
In order to grow in self awareness, we must allow the observations of our loved ones sink in. At times that is painful… other times you might be harder on yourself you should be. If you receive a compliment that comes as a surprise don’t dismiss it, contemplate it… you may learn something about yourself you weren’t aware of… truth is, every single one of us have blind spots, good ones and bad.
We are created to live in community, in relationship. If we only see what is in our mind we limit our potential of wisdom. To enjoy life to its fullest we must give permission to the people in our circle of trust, the ones who sit across the fire, to report on how they see our log. They see things about us that we can’t…
Our minds can fool us…they are built to protect… sometimes our minds protect in unhealthy ways, developing and maintaining coping mechanisms that protect us but may not be completely true. If we don’t bust up the lies in our minds, we get stuck and become blinded to the Truth that lies within.
I pray that the talented song writer can bust through the darkness to give permission for the light to come in.
I pray he can find a way to let his campfire team reveal to him how impressive he truly is.