Around the Fire

The burning of the Wishing Tree Saturday night is a special ritual to many people at camp.  I hold it close to my heart, after my several and always different experiences of the energy there.  Fire is a magical thing anyway.

 Volunteers with chainsaws, or handsaws, go out into the woods and pick out a dead tree, or sometimes several logs that are made into a wooden structure.  Camp members write notes on pieces of paper and tie them to the tree. These could be anything really, from wishes to messages to the universe.   Saturday night everyone gathers in a circle, and the fire tenders light the tree to the accompaniment of drums.   There are cheers, hurrahs, laughter, sometimes singing and dancing that goes along with the burn.  Some people are likely fucking around the fire, and in the past that has been us.   This year I danced for a while, watched my wishes burn, then Master called me to follow him to the dungeon for a rope play session he'd arranged with our friend.   That was a lot of fun, being tied together and flogged a little bit, and trying to escape.  Normally I don't try to escape, but in this case that was the whole point.  I did it by using my teeth to unbuckle a cuff!  
Sneaky, huh?

Afterward, we went back out to the fire, and one of my very favorite calm memories of this year's camp was lying near the fire in front of my Master, on a soft mat, being his foot rest.  It was just the perfect spot for me to soak up warmth and recuperate energy.