The Fire Prince

“if one suffers a series of unfortunate events, there is always something one can do-you can always read a book, invent something new or build a sanctuary”.  from the film “Lemony Snicket”

Recently the image of the fire element licked at the edges of my world. The most recent was last evening at a lecture/workshop that I attended with Yvonne. It was about creativity and how that energy can be blocked by the masks that we sometimes wear. We broke into small groups and guided by three dynamic facilitators, we were asked to approach some small tables and pick out an image (from many!) that best represented a familiar mask that we might wear to hide or block our creativity. One participant was drawn to a small card depicting “the fire prince”, this figure was surrounded by flame and though male, our group member felt that this figure called to her feminine side as well. In discussion and somewhat exciting to contemplate, our member actually presented her authentic self – this “fire prince” figure represented her place in the world – a strong personality not afraid to be a catalyst, not afraid to burn away other masks that might hide a truth and to bravely be a change agent. It was exciting to meet her in this open space, to support her in changing the thoughts about herself; she thought  “the fire prince” was her mask, instead this small card revealed her true self. I came away from this lecture/workshop realizing that we all have and wear masks, they are our currency in this world, we can pick them up or put them down, sometimes they can even save us or protect us, what is most important is not to wear our masks so long that we forget who we truly are – the “fire prince” taught me this last night!

The other image of the fire element came from a call from Huguette, telling me about our friend Bruce’s heritage home, lost to a fire that may have started by a roman candle or fireworks being set off just prior to Halloween. Thankfully Bruce and his tenant were able to escape without injury and with the help of neighbours (more dear neighbours!). Our thoughts then settled on the fate of Bruce’s beautiful cats – Huguette had the pleasure recently to look after the brothers (a chocolate brown Burmese with golden eyes and a light beige Siamese with stunning blue eyes) and I was able to spend some quality time with them as well. It was a delight to have Ezra (our Burmese) come out from the safety of Huguette’s big bed and greet me, to watch him stretch out for lots of petting and unusual for some cats, asking for a prolonged belly rub! Simon (our Siamese) was slower to come out but soft words and praise, especially if I praised Ezra, often did the trick. He would come out and lay down near me so I could reach down and give him a nice pet, Ezra would lazily watch me and allow Simon to have some attention, too. Communing with cats is a lovely thing to do and to hear a few days later that “we” lost the cats in this tragic fire was hard to fathom, I’m so glad to have these warm memories and just this past Sunday while at Huguette’s apartment for a “Sunday Girls” gathering where four of us get together to drink wine and eat delicious food, I happened to look down at the floor and like a hologram, there were the cats, Ezra was lying down and looking up at Huguette and Simon was sitting up like the regal lion he was and looking at me! It made me feel that the element of fire gave back to us what it had taken away, I felt that all was well with those two boys and I wasn’t to grieve or worry any more. And like the quote above, Huguette and I will always be able to read a book and Bruce will once again build his sanctuary…                                           This post is dedicated to the memory of Simon & Ezra

Sanctuary in Tulum, Mexico