Beauty from Ashes
It's been about a month since the Carr fire started here. Yesterday morning we had beautiful blue skies and I got to take my dog for a much needed (for both of us) walk along the Sacramento River.
Today, the air quality keeps getting worse. I just asked Siri and it's currently at 145 which, is unhealthy. Ugh! But, it was over 300 in the days right after the fire broke out. So, I'm choosing to be thankful.
I was out doing yard work a couple of days ago and I was watering my plants and the ash was about a quarter of an inch thick on the leaves of all of my bushes and flowers. And then I thought man, I am so thankful that I actually have plants to water.
It's hard to put into words how you feel when you live in a city that has had over 1000 homes burn down. I drove around some of the neighborhoods that were burned a few days ago. It reminded me of when my husband and I took some kids from our youth group to New Orleans after Katrina. Some blocks would have only 2-3 houses left and then some blocks would have one house in between two others that would be totally burned.
I cried as I drove around and saw the devastation. People's belongings now in piles of ash. Signs from State Farm Insurance company on some lawns. Pickups and cars burned and charred and half destroyed.
I was shopping and as I went through the aisles I could hear people talking of how they were trying to put their lives back together after losing their homes. There's such devastation and trauma that so many are facing.
Then there's the survivors guilt. My home didn't burn and neither did my daughter and son-in-laws. But, we all know of people who lost absolutely everything. It's such a crazy thought to think that one morning you wake up in your home and before you go to bed that night your home is gone and your life will never be the same.
As I was reading one morning I came across this article about Sequoia trees. Sequoia trees bark can grow up to 24 inches thick--the thickest bark of any tree on earth. Every fire it endures burns away it's competition for sunlight, and it's the fire that makes a fertilizer for the sequoia tree's growth. The fertilizer is the ashes.
What is in the ashes that I'm surrounded by? Suddenly the ashes that have been hidden in our lives are out in the open for everyone who drives by to see. They're sprinkled everywhere for miles and miles.
There's so much unmeasurable life in those ashes. What is the beauty that needs to be brought out of the ashes? Nothing in the ashes is wasted. It's a seed of sorts, to birth strength, to birth courage, to birth dreams, to birth legacy.
