We haven’t posted about the fire that is wrecking a path of devastation in our home country, because we are a peculiar combination of sad, mad and proud about what is happening and the response on the ground.
It is personal.
We know people being affected day in and day out. Family members, friends, co-workers, neighbors.
We know the places being scourged. We’ve laughed in those spots, taken a stroll, saw them pass by our car window as we gazed into the landscape.
We are saddened by the tremendous loss of life. The images of people fleeing, animals perishing and the trees engulfed in flames will forever haunt us.
We are mad by the denial of the cause and the insanity to think this won’t keep happening. We are mad that there are other fires, affecting other homes, burning across the planet, charring the earth.
Yet, we are proud of our fellow citizens rushing in to fight the fires, to save the animals to rescue those stranded, to condemn those that say this is normal. This is not normal.
We want to thank everyone who has reached out and asked how we are doing. It means a great deal. We won’t stay sad and we won’t stay mad, we will go back to being hopeful. We hope this is a wake-up call. That the practices that led to the fires will be questioned. That those denying climate change will be drowned out by the voices that speak for the billions of animals that perished, by the voices that speak for the scarred earth and the life below the surface, and by the voices that speak for the air we breathe.
It’s our choice as to what “we” do next.
