Note: This was inspired by close proximity to a wildfire, yet again. We were fortunate, we were not quite close enough to require evacuation, though many were closer. No deaths this time.

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Warmth in the chill of the evening

Expectation of another day

Food on the table

Smiles in wavering light

Pleasant conversation

Friends brought together

It’s wonderful, exciting, and full of life

Yet it is also terrifying

scorched earth, property lost

lost friends, too, human and other

polluted water, mud slides

watching your home reduced to ash

paralyzed, unable to think

in the moment, unable to see a future

Two sides of a coin

Different, but united, yin and yang

Sometimes bringing fear

At once, terrifying, filling us with dread

or awe when it filled with wonder

bonfires and fireworks,

welcome and warm hearth

experience depends

on perspective in the moment

sometimes shifting with time and distance

Remaining elemental, neither good nor bad

But capable of both