Fire has been around forever, and humans have spent forever trying to build the perfect one, while trying to confine it all at the same time.

Fire can be as destructive as it can be lifesaving. Fire is alive like we are. It has a life of its own. It grows, it dies, it struggles, it thrives—a lot like us. But it’s magical too. Flames of all colors that sparkle and dance and glow. It breathes. Just like you and I breathe, fire breathes—it is life.

In our journey to build and control fire, we often find it out of control and doing just the thing we don’t want it to do, consuming everything in its path. It’s hungry for more, and it’s on the move. A fire that is out of control is a fire you want to stay away from. It’s a fire that is building, spreading, and destroying. But to the fire, it’s not destroying; it’s surviving, like you and I do every day.

However, in order for it to survive, it needs fuel, and that fuel is often what we, humans, hold precious. Homes, cars, nature, and sometimes the ones we love, may all fall victim to a fire.

So we work to control fire so that we can safely capture its beauty, its light, its sparkle, and use it for something that brings us together, instead of tearing us apart.

Enter the modern-day firepit. Usually round and in a contained, safe area, the firepit allows each of us to capture our own wild thing and celebrate it.

This wild thing that we have learned to safely contain now has the opportunity do so much for us and becomes a source of fascination and delight.

The firepit has been bringing families and communities together for centuries, and now, so many of us have one in our backyard. Firepits differ from a fireplace, although equally loved, since they are usually in outdoor gathering places. It brings warmth on cold nights, light to the darkness, bringing us all together as we desire to get close to it, but not too close.

We gather, we all sit around it, with the fire being the main attraction. Right smack in the middle, it becomes the center of our universe at that moment. All we need is right there, our own wild thing. We pride ourselves in creating the biggest and best fire ever.

Families gather, and when families gather around a fire, something magical happens. This wild thing, this thing that breathes and billows and takes on its own life, somehow calms us down. This wild thing has the ability to relax us, maybe because it is so wild, so creative, it has so much energy that we don’t need to add our own fuel to the fire. We can let go of our energy, knowing it’s impossible to try to compete with it.

Fire is even wilder than your average toddler. A toddler will eventually stop, eventually crash, and fall asleep, but not fire. When fire is set free, it will continue to grow and consume so that it can continue to live and breathe. The ultimate wild thing.

As it was so simply stated in the movie “Field of Dreams”: “If you build it, they will come.” So true with fire. Have you ever noticed that when someone has a fire going in their backyard, people come, family, friends, neighbors standing in their own backyards just to take a look? Fire unites us. It’s mesmerizing; it’s meditative; it’s relaxing; it brings calm while being in a sense its own chaos. It makes us happy; we laugh; we have fun.

Let’s not forget the ingenious, delightful snack that goes hand in hand, or should I say hand in mouth with fire—s’mores. Grahams, chocolate, and marshmallow, all stacked together, melting, dripping, delighting little and big kids for over a century. General consensus is that these tasty treats started back in the 20s with the Campfire Girls (sing “Wohelo”), others say it dates back even farther with Mallomars and Moonpies. But wherever it came from, most people will say it’s a treat that’s as much fun to make as it is to eat. No backyard fire is complete without a stick with a marshmallow on the end of it.

Want to bring more family fun to your family? A firepit may be just the answer. Firepits bring us together safely for conversation, food, laughter, and much needed calm in this crazy journey we call life. Life can be a rat race, chaotic, always on the move, stressing us out every day, and never offering us a chance to slow down and breathe. Maybe that’s what’s so mystical about fire; it is all of that and more.

But it really is magic. When you sit in front of a fire, watching it, absorbed in its dance, it embodies everything that is part of our everyday, hectic, stressful lives, and it relieves us of the chaos. This wild thing, this ultimate, wild thing, is just the thing that restores peace and calm to the ones who are lucky enough to be sitting around it.

Go ahead, build a fire, make your day!

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