I walked out into a small clearing just off the large shadow cast by my favorite old man of a live oak. Stepping out into the warming rays I felt a deep sense of connection. I was a part of the sun and it a part of me. I have been reading about cosmology lately and the nature of the universe. It has caused me to consider that this ball of burning hydrogen is so much more than a ubiquitous life giving light that, like so much, we hardly notice day by day, as life slips by. I have also come to be passionately obsessed with camp fires in recent years. Relaxing beside them with a mug of tea staring into the flame and embers brings me a sense of calm and grounding that’s hard to match. The idea that on this cool winter day, the sun was essentially the same phenomenon and yet 93 million miles away was pleasing to me. The distant and mundane made warm and sacred.