I received this post as an email from Linda Clair Puig about the Fires in Sonoma County a week or so ago and found it so heart-wrenching and inspiring at the same time, I wanted to share it with you all…..
My body may have been in Italy, but my heart and soul were in Sonoma County, my home for nearly 20 years, and it was on fire. The flames that engulfed the area last month are now the worst fire disaster in California history, and I felt like I needed to be there. So I left Italy early, put off Spain for another time, and came home. Being here has been both inspiring and heartbreaking, and I wanted to share with you a few stories and insights from the fires and the aftermath. I know it’s not my usual article content. It’s about “heart stuff” and doorways and people coming together. And it feels important to write about. I hope it touches something for you this weekend.***********
People get really BASIC about what matters, and it’s always the heart stuff. One fellow, a former firefighter, stayed behind to protect his house, and he knew how. But when an elderly couple walked out of the smoke towards him, he dropped his efforts and packed them into his truck to drive them out of danger. They stopped and picked up another elderly couple walking on the road and eventually, he had to drive through a burning tree to get them all to safety. He didn’t hesitate to leave his house to burn. Heart stuff. Another woman I talked to threw a brick through a window to get in and help a neighbor escape. Heart stuff. A husband and wife, shivering in a pool to escape the flames all around them, recited all the things they loved and appreciated about each other and the lives they’ve shared together. Heart stuff. The heart stuff showed up in thousands of different ways, as people came streaming forward to help, during and after the fires. People whose homes had burned, along with those in non-threatened areas showed up at volunteer centers at 5 am and worked non-stop. Donations of all kinds flooded in. Volunteers jumped in to coordinate volunteers. Chefs and farms collaborated to cook food for evacuees — for weeks. All the animal shelters are coordinated to maximize help. People all over the area offered homes and horse stalls and pastures and everything. Folks are still showing up at dusk to the burned neighborhoods to try to rescue and repatriate cats with their owners. Heart stuff. Now, as those who lost their houses regroup, they have multiple places to go to refurbish their lives. There’s even a “matchmaking” website where fire victims can state their needs (twin beds, for example) and administrators match them with someone who has already listed those needed items as available to give. I could go on…it’s utterly remarkable.
All these families, and all these individuals, scorched by the experience of losing, in many cases, literally everything, are walking through their own personal doorway.As you think about them, think about your own doorways. Most of the time, these journeys through doorways into something different are not journeys we embark on voluntarily. They usually involve loss, often heartbreak. Always change.But there IS another side, something new and unknown that awaits us. And there are people willing to support us through that doorway, if we ask for help, or simply recognize the helpers and allow their support.I don’t feel I’ve done justice to the enormity of what’s happened here, but I had to write it.If you feel so moved to contribute to the recovery effort here — to the lives of those affected — this is where us locals are donating our money. It’s a local credit union, and 100% of the funds are being given to fire victims.Here’s the link: https://www.redwoodcu.org/northbayfirerelief My wish for you, wherever you are, is that “heart stuff” surrounds you in every way possible. And may the doorways you step through in your life be ones that bring you awareness of your own resilience and strength and worth…and of how much support is always available to you. With gratitude for your presence in my life, Linda Claire PuigP.S. If this newsletter was forwarded to you, and you’d like to subscribe, please click here and enter your name and email at the top right of the page. |
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