Few of us can imagine the terror of having our homes and communities savaged by windswept, roaring flames. My heart breaks for my friends to the north in California’s beautiful wine country even as the wildfires continue to rage all around them. I cannot imagine their terror. Their shock. Their utter disbelief in Mother Nature’s fury.
It seems like only yesterday when I wrote about the devastating impact of hurricane Harvey, yet I find myself once again moved by the cloud of uncertainty under which we all live.
So much of what we take for granted, and even that for which we are mindfully grateful, can be gone in an instant. Life as we know it slips through our fingertips no matter how hard we try to contain it, to keep all as it is. We know this. But few of us live a life filled with this awareness. Instead, we bump and bumble through each new day ticking off this thing or that needing to be done. We rush to work and home again. We feed the dog. We forget.
If nothing can stop the ferocity with which so many are being battered of late, whether by fire or flood or random acts of senseless violence, at least let their suffering be not in vain. Rather, let their incomprehensible devastation lift up each of us to a new level of appreciation for our one and only precious life. And let us, in return, help renew their spirit of hopefulness.
And let us not forget.