There are Giants in the Land I

I lived in peace. The mornings rose quiet, dew upon the grass, smoke curling gentle from the lodge. Children laughed around the 🟡 Circle, their voices carrying across the meadow like the call of birds. At night, the 🔥 Fire burned steady. We had the 🗡️ Knife for our work, the 🪨 Stone for our memories, and the 🎵 Song to echo our joy throughout the plains.

And I thought this would always be so.

But then I saw it.

Across the plain, where the horizon meets the sky, there rose a figure. A Giant. At first I thought the morning mist played tricks with my eyes. But as the sun bled higher, I saw its shape clear: vast legs like the sycamore, shoulders like cliffs, arms with strength enough to level a village in moments. The ground quivered beneath its tread, and the birds fled the trees as it approached.

My chest turned cold. For if a giant could exist, then all that I believed safe could be torn apart. If his stride covered valleys, what use were our fences? If his shadow could blot the sun, what warmth could the 🔥 Fire give? My mind reeled with terrors: the Giant could flatten the lodge with one step, scatter the 🪨 Stones of our ancestors, silence the 🎵 Songs of our children. He was not yet upon us, but already I felt the weight of despair, as though my spirit had bowed its knee.

All day I walked in this hopelessness. I looked at the land not as my home, but as something already lost. The deer that crossed the glade, the wind stirring the grass — seemed to be on its journey to safer land. I wondered if we should offer ourselves willingly, bend before the Giant, and hope he might let us live in the crumbs of his shadow.

But then, as the night gathered, I sat again before the 🔥 Fire. Its flames leapt and whispered: The Giant cannot feed here. His hands are too large to gather twigs, too clumsy to spark flint. He cannot sit among the 🟡 Circle and share warmth, for he knows not the bonds of family. He can crush, yes — but he cannot kindle. And without kindling, even a giant must starve.

So I rose. I took up the 🗡️ Knife, not as a weapon, but as a reminder: every tool is ours to wield with wisdom. Their purpose in our hands must never serve him. I placed my hand upon the 🪨 Stone, feeling the weight of all those who came before, and I sang a quiet 🎵 Song into the night. Then I called to my people.

“We must not kneel,” I told them. “We must not invite the Giant into our Circle. If he crushes us, then let him crush us standing. But if we stand — if we guard our Fire — his hunger will undo him, for he cannot eat what only the human heart can prepare.”

And so we gather, night after night, the 🔥 Fire still burning, the 🟡 Circle unbroken. The Giant waits on the horizon, pacing, searching for a way in. But we know his secret. We know his weakness. And we will keep the Fire alive, until the day he crumbles to dust.

I felt new strength rising. I felt the wind and deer return. But then, to my horror, I saw in the distance - my son on horseback, riding toward the Giant.

Shawn Murtagh

Son. Husband. Father of 4. Programmer. Writer. Seeker of slow wisdom in a world gone mad with speed. Founder of Low Tech Monk.