I understand his excitement. The first time I blew gently onto a coal that I had created myself, watching something emerge that wasn’t there before, breathing it into life… it was profound, and definitely magical.

So powerful, this element, that has allowed us to evolve as humans. In the age of gas and lighters and fear around fire, I had not grown up smelling of wood smoke, except while camping, but breathing this being into life, it was so familiar, all of a sudden. This is how we have cooked, warmed ourselves and felt community… there is nothing more natural for humans than sitting around a fire. Yet, in our culture, many of us have lost this skill and this connection.

I long to help bring us back.

I don’t reckon we need to be off in the wilderness to do it, although there is no doubt that connection is easier out there… but we need to connect where we are. And most of us live in cities. This is why our next offering for home-educating families is around fire: different ways to create it, tend it, respect it and appreciate it, in the city. Claire Dunn, friend and author of “My Year Without Matches” will be joining me in facilitating this exploration into where we are. If you would like your children to feel this connection, with themselves, with nature and to our common ancestors who all sat around these fires, please feel free tojoin us, we would love to have you in our growing tribe!