Life is Fast

Debi and I were driving back to Riverside after vistiing my sister in the hospital in Laguna- she'd been flown home from Africa after coming down sick while working in Rwanda, we're thankful she's on the mend, then stopping to hang out with my mom and dad, when we came across this fire next to the toll road. Since we received less then two inches of rain in Southern California last year, everything's dry and just waiting for any reason to go up in smoke. The fire was ripping up the side of a hill where water dropping helicopters, fire trucks and lines of workers were just getting the battle started. Later in the evening I saw on the news that they'd put the fire down in no time and planned to spend the night making sure no embers spread the danger.

We saw the fire for maybe one minute: I took out my cell phone and snapped this shot. Acres of the local ecosystem were changed forever and firefighters spent frightening hours in the heat of sunset in the battle, then a long night on the hillside, in pitch black, working to make sure the community was safe. Long after we were asleep, they were still working. Firefighting: it's just one part of the puzzle that enables us to survive in the desert.

Life is fast. We drove by the fire at seventy miles an hour, while clicking a picture, then went on our way- next -without giving the blaze much thought. We didn't even consider stopping to help- they'd have sent us off in a minute, we knew things were in good hands and that if it got bad enough that they needed us... all of Orange County was in serious trouble! Somewhere, not far from the fire, a starlet was in rehab, a franchise baskeball player was considering his financial future, my mom and dad prepared for dinner in a downstairs room in my brother's home... my sister tried to accept that she was back in the states and sick, her children still in Africa... while a fire ripped up a hill side... the same way fire has burned since before there were fire fighters... life is fast.

Here in Southern California we have a fire "season" the way other regions anticipate weather patterns. We've grown fond of a sunset through the smoke... it's so beautiful... and such a part of who we are. I almost suggested to Debi that we wait out the fire, sunset was just an hour away and with the ocean and Catalina Island visible in the background it would have been glorious... but it just didn't seem right while others were fighting to put the blaze down and so we drove on.

Life is filled with fires, some burn unchecked, through our hearts, habits, spirits... others are brought under control- we hope before anyone spots the smoke -most call for loving support to help us put them down, no matter how hard we fight. People drive by... some take the time to stare... many don't even notice we're burning inside. Life is filled with fire, we burn with the seasons.

Life is fast, regardless the season we're in. Today's firestorms quickly become tomorrows charred memory and next season a new area for fertile growth and fresh beginnings following the storm. Whatever season we find ourself in today, we don't have to burn alone, we don't have to battle through a season of charred suffering without support and there are those ready to come along side us as new blades break through the surface to push aside old embers with the fragile beginnings of hope. Life is fast, let's share every season, even if it moves as quickly as a hillside brushfire on a summer afternoon in Southern California. Why go through it alone? Life is fast.