Wet Log
Fri, 2015-02-27 05:00
News Staff
By Renae Brumbaugh
For the past two days, Superman and I have been iced in. That’s not a sentence I ever thought I’d type, considering we live in Texas. But sure enough, the rainy drizzle and temps in the 20’s, combined with living on a hilltop, have made it impossible to go anywhere other than our big green built-for-two chair, right in front of the fireplace. Kinda cozy. There we sat, him with his stack of Louis L’Amour novels, me with my Kindle and my laptop, munching away at popcorn and listening to the crunch and snap of flames on logs. Except when we ran out of firewood, it wasn’t nearly as cozy. We didn’t actually run out, but our stack in the garage that was supposed to last us all winter dwindled to four logs. And we weren’t sure what to do. Burn them all at once, and go out in a blaze? Or burn them one at a time? Measly fire, but for a little longer? Fortunately for us, Superman’s parents live right up the road, and the afternoon sun turned the ice to slush for just a little while. Memaw and Grandpa Sam had several years’ worth of firewood piled against their fence, and they were willing to share. So we left our reading material stacked just so, bundled into coats and gloves and hats and scarves, and made the careful trek to the fuel source. Slow and easy we drove (and by we I mean Superman,) until we arrived at the Promised Land of warmth. Together we loaded the back of the truck with as much wood as it would carry, then went inside to eat Memaw’s homemade potato soup. Memaw’s cooking is an entirely different article, but let’s just say for now that delicious doesn’t even begin to describe it. We drove home, stacked our newly acquired heat source in the garage, and carried a few logs inside to rebuild our fire. But there was one teensy little problem . . . These logs were wet. Fortunately for us, our previous logs still burned, so we set our new logs in front of the fire to warm. One at a time, we added the driest log to the existing fire and brought another one in from the garage. One at a time, the heat from the burning logs encouraged the new logs toward a more burnable state. I guess we could say the burning logs helped prepare the moist logs for their purpose. One at a time, the new logs caught, and I’m happy to report we haven’t been without heat. Sometimes I feel like a wet log. Lots of potential, but for some reason I just can’t catch fire. Instead of a blaze of glory, I’m a soppy, damp mess. Is that the opposite of a hot mess? When I’m not living out my purpose, sometimes I just need a little time. I need a little warmth and encouragement from my friends, from those who’ve gone before me. At those times, the kindness and compassion from others gives me courage and confidence, and eventually, I’m setting off my own blaze. Next time someone around me seems more like a wet mop than a glowing inferno of possibilities, I’ll recall my own drizzly moments. I’ll heat up the fire of thoughtfulness and humanity, and help light the way out of their fog. But for right now, I’m gonna curl up next to Superman with my Kindle. “Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing,” 1 Thessalonians 5:11. Find Renae’s latest book, Lone Star Ranger, and connect with her at