..the old ways would not have gone away.

The fires still burn, but they no longer scald as much as they did before.

The smoke thins, and the sun returns to the lands again.

New life seethes through the fields and the forests.

Their paths are good enough for one to walk through again.

Peace returns, restoring normalcy, the way things are supposed to be.

One can take time to wonder at beauty again.

The flames reduced the magnificent but foolish monuments of the old into ashes.

The ashes in turn provide nourishment for new life.

The flames are wise. The useless ways of the old were vanquished, while the useful ones were left behind.

The land welcomes these useful ways into the new order.

And combined with the new life that governs these lands, breeds hope for a better future ahead.

For the pains that the land had to incur for these flames, it is now enjoying the fruits of a fresh start.

Had there be no flames, the old ways would not have gone away.

There would be no knowledge of the right and wrong.

There would have been no fresh beginning.

However some ruins of the old can never be burned away. No fire is strong enough.

We take a walk at times to visit these sites again, to live the old times and wonder at the glorious pasts.

Wonder at the sheer foolishness we held before.

Yet wonder also at the joy these foolishness brought.

And perhaps even wonder at the knowledge these foolishness will bring, as we learn more and more about them.

But the ruins will never rise again.

Life will grow over them, steadily hiding them from sight.

Until the day they are thoroughly forgotten, less those that are larger in size.

But the lessons, the knowledge, and perhaps the joys they have brought will always remain.

Because they will always be our past, a part of us, something we must learn to live with and live off.

They can teach us many things, only if we listen with fair thought.

And there will be those fires that may never extinguish, a small part where destruction will always rage.

Tell thyself no matter, for peace and joy has returned to the lands, even though destruction still lives, it is but a small part of life.

We must accept that life can never be entirely flawless.