The "Monster Fire"
WHOA…! Summer has come and gone and we are now cruising into Autumn ! … I am so happy to be back…(writing that is)…. I sure did fall off my groove there for the past 3 months! Oh well…. It happens to the best of us. The important thing is to get groovy again as soon as we can:) I hope that you have been enjoying a great summer! I know that for many people this Summer has been filled with unexpected and intense challenges. There just seems to be A LOT up for most of us! The changing of the Seasons are always a potent time for reflection.
“Heavy-Hearted” is the over-arching feeling that I have been experiencing and leaning into these past few months. The news, which I don’t tune into all that much(but receive non-the-less by osmosis), is emotionally numbing and nervous system-stressing. The divides that people are experiencing amongst themselves are tragic. Humanity is deafeningly out of balance with Nature! Cataclysmic disasters left and right are “shaking things up” in extreme ways.
I have been especially tuned into the fires that plague California and the Northwest. They hit unnervingly “close to HOME” this year and I feel for my friends and loved ones who were displaced for about a month and a half under mandatory evacuation orders, feeling especially heart-sick for so many dear ones who do not have homes to go back to. I don’t even know how you begin to pick up the pieces and recover from a loss of that magnitude.
Amongst the falling ash of The Dixie Fire, much of our beautiful Plumas County has been burned up over the course of the past 2 & 1/2 months. The fire started on July 13th and is now, at the end of September, finally getting to the point of being %100 contained. After 2 months of thick, smokey, ashy air the skies are finally clearing and blue can be seen above … a welcome sight and breath of relief. On August 4th, the entire town of Greenville, where I went to High School, was reduced to charred up rubble over the course of several hours. I was with my family that day, having drove up to visit everyone at my brothers house in Yuba City, where our parents had been staying already for a couple of weeks under evacuation orders. We all listened and watched in utter disbelief and shock to the reports and clips of video and pictures that afternoon not knowing how to process this unbelievable reality and devastating loss. The entire downtown area is gone…. The Post Office, the Library, the Bank, the Pharmacy, the Hardware Store, the Church, 2 gas stations, a hotel, a few restaurants, …. Along with many homes. This happened a couple of weeks after the fire raged through Indian Falls, a near-by community, burning up many homes there including the “Apple Orchard House”, where I was born at home. We haven’t lived there since I was 2 but it has always felt like a historic site to me personally and I always loved pointing it out when I brought friends up to visit my hometown area in the mountains.
After sweeping through Greenville and Canyon Dam, the fire continued snaking it’s way around Indian Valley, devastating the beautiful mountain scenery that makes up these foothills of The Sierra. Taking out another 10-11 homes in North Arm Valley and then burning over the ridge and sweeping all throughout Genesee Valley, the “Monster Fire” raged on week after week. For all of us who live in or are from Plumas County it has been an incredibly stressful time, keeping tabs day in and day out, praying that more homes would not be lost, hoping against hope that Taylorsville(where my parents live) would be spared, and praying that those who lost their homes are finding the support they need. Thankfully the winds happened to be “in our favor” for those couple of weeks that the fire was close to Taylorsville, so my parents do have a home and a town to go back to. The sense of community and coming together that we have been seeing throughout and in the wake of this disaster is remarkable. I bow deeply to all the people who have been fighting tirelessly throughout this ordeal and I send prayers of strength and waves of love to those who have lost everything.
Perhaps you too are experiencing dramatic shifts or deep emotion processes in your life these days. Perhaps you are an empath and are having a difficult time maneuvering the heaviness in the world around you. It is easy to feel overwhelmed, burdened and extra fatigued right now. If this is the case, REST more. Remember to breathe. Just BE with what is. Find ways to nourish yourself. Look and move towards what feels “light” and “playful”. Be gentle and tender with your heart and body. Allow your emotions to find ways of expression. It could be talking with with friend, or going for a walk, or dancing in your living room, or walking barefoot In the grass. These huge shifts are happening to help us heal and wake up. Life is revealing ways in which we are able to show up for ourselves and each other more profoundly then ever. “Moving forward” one step at a time, we will find our way.
“THE SUNFLOWER STILL SMILES AMONGST THE FALLING ASH”
Photo taken and posted by Levi Mullen days after his home and the town he lives in burned to the ground in The Dixie Fire. Blessings to you and your family dear friend. Thank you for reminding us all that we can still find beauty around us even in the midst of devastation and despair.
