fire

it's funny how ashes & burning make trees stand taller.

you know how when you feel the lick of the flames & they swallow your heart & digest your hope & they shit on your dreams?

that's just the fire burning away the bits of you that need to die. it hurts because you're losing layers & it's still yours but it's the you that needs to be lost.

strange how that works. how we have to burn and crumble & ash to be reborn. if only the birthing process could be softer.

it's funny too how much we shine after we face the flames & embrace the ash & we find that we are better afterall. i guess that's why we should listen to the words that say to keep eyes high & heart light.

that reminds me of the story of la brujita, one that had great heart & tried to share it well. she loved to bewitch those into her magic so they could forget their darkness.

but she'd constantly be rocked by those she'd magicked & it took so long to learn how to care for a heart so great. they tore at her & broke her & stole & raped her. but the fire just had to burn hot enough so that she'd  own her dark magic & destroy the evil ones.

a great heart is something to be well guarded, not something to be revealed to those broken and scary. though the times that they broke her she threatened to die in the break, she knew that she had magic to share with the light ones that wouldn't toss her into the hearth to perish.

the one who taught scarred himself with pura vida and son-loving tattoos; they were a part of his darkness mask. he told her of dreaming and how he needed a savior and she wanted to share her light and banish his burdens.

they shared their stories & how the flame had touched them both and la brujita thought she'd come to a point where her magic was working & she'd be free to let him fly. but then his mask unfolded & he branded her with his darkness & she was left with a limp and a heart weeping.

he was her greatest lesson to date; he unvealed the secret we hide from our young...that magic can be squashed & that dark hates light & he didn't want to let it live. he armed himself with his might & used his own black magic & worked a spell that left la brujita broken. he tore apart her family & stole what life he could & left la brujita for dead.

little did he know that she'd been burned harder before, & when he asked to see her eyes after he'd blackened her magic, & she looked up and said, 'you're lucky i'm stronger now,' he should have known she meant it. he didn't know that she had a secret box where she kept her dark magic, one she'd strayed from for fear she couldn't wear black well. little did he know that she'd grown into la bruja, & she was ready to burn the fire back.

though fire vs fire still leaves her burned too, at least her ash will be mixed with some she made herself. now she can see her own magic, black and white, & know that she can be soft & hard. but now she's been shown that darkness threatens her light & she must guard hers well. there's a reason why there exist both people and places were the sun itself refuses to shine.

so in fire, she burns, but she will emerge ever greater than the previous flames allowed. & la bruja could imagine no greater victory.