“Women’s “heal everything, fix everything” compulsion is a major entrapment constructed by the requirements placed upon us by our own cultures, mainly pressures to prove that we are not just standing around taking up space and enjoying ourselves, but that we have redeemable value- in some parts of the world, it is fair to say, to prove that we have value and therefore should be allowed to live. These pressures are introduced into our psyches when we are very young and unable to judge or resist them. They become law to us… unless or until we challenge them.”

As devastating as forest fires are in the rainforest, the destructive power of fire is necessary for the preservation of other ecosystems, where parts of the natural fauna and flora develop only thanks to the fires. Animals and plants often have a natural capacity for resistance in such fire-dependent ecosystems. The nature of the fires varies, however. In grasslands, savannahs, some forests and wetlands, only a moderately intense ground fire sweeps through, ensuring that the open landscape structure is maintained. Rare but very intense fires are characteristic of bush landscapes or forests. They consume old and diseased trees, create new habitats and ensure an ecological rejuvenation of the tree population. Intervening in these ecosystems, for instance by preventing small fires in order to protect the population, can have fatal consequences. Over time, more and more combustible material accumulates. Even harmless fires can quickly turn into highly destructive walls of flames. This happens time and again in Australia or in the dense pine forests in the southwest of the United States, which were once grasslands.

I put it down on paper and then the ghost does not ache so much.