Branching Off

I cleaned my fireplace out the other day. It was about time...the ashes were really building up.

Notice I didn't say the branches were really piling up?

While the branches were on the tree, they were truly branches.

Even when they were broken off and lying by the tree you would have said that they were branches.

And even when I tossed them into the fire...I tossed branches into the flames.

But once the flames did their work...they were branches no more.