I wrote this last week in the dark........
The smoke from the fires up in the mountains put a hue of pink in the north sky tonight that beamed so into the kitchen when I was making curry chicken salad too early to be the sunset. The puffy endless cloud sat right in front of the sun and were lined with purple threads.
Then the power went out. I freaking adore when that happens. Everyone seems to calm down to this point of sanity that sits a little bit better with me. People stand outside their houses trying to find someone to chat too and scrounge around their junk drawers for batteries. I love it. Chris and I played frisbee ( and may I add my throw was in perfect form tonight), we climbed a tree and then sat on the porch winding up the wind up radio ( that thing can amuse me for hours). As the sun went down the cars ceased to exist and only the faint noise of the evening train choo chooing in dimly resembled itself in the distance.
To some disasters are just that. Sometimes I fight with disasters. Have fires been happening forever? Is it a natural progresstion of their ecology? Is it too dry (Yes!!)? Too many people, using too much water?? Definitly yes. People who fight that fire tonight up in the hills are hot to trot and fighting a merciless force of indeniable proportions. What destroys and a powerful swift force that joins up with wind to overpower its surroundings.
And here we are, say 30 miles, from a brushed out dry desert that is being winded all night. We lay so lush in our houses with our power, water, internet, things and the natural progression of disaster feels so far away.
In communities like ours in the U.S. that seem like smart little safe havens and shelters from so many manmade and natural tragedies that other continents seem to be ransacked by......I feel so lucky. So blessed, like Marilyn Monroe in a covnertible on a coastal road with wind blowing in the hair. We have it all and use it like we don't even realize we have it. I am guilty. We are all to a certain degree.
We work, drive around, use technology like we couldn't live without it, we work more, fill up gas tanks and try to always justify it. We cook, we freeze, we eat, we use, we flush, we leave it all on when we are gone and let it run. Then...........we run out. It is an interesting thing when we just calm down and stop trying to chase it all down the road till we all explode.
Why cannot we progress back to the basics. Using rainwater, grey water, heating water with solar, reusing. All the rules of this country could lead to its downfall. All the health regulations leave us scrambling for water in the end.
I need very little and to have what I have in terms of family, friends, loves, food, flowers on my table, freedom, ideas, abilities, time, cleanliness, breath, opportunities to make it all happen.
The power exterminating itself teaches us all to remain grounded . Slowing me down. I love when the power goes out. Darkness reigns the streets and it doesn't feel like California anymore, it feels like a small village in Mexico on a perfect evening.
