The air was pungent with smoky residue from the hills as I tried to rake the leaves, alone. I was annoyed as my eyes burned and my throat was tightening even as I my mind wandered to those years of when an orchestra of eager-if-not-always-happy-rakers created the backdrop for a full afternoon of laughing-complaining-leaves-in-hair-working-fun.
Clearly, the sky was dusky and the fall spectacular of crunchy leaves was not what I was expecting until I remembered that I was indeed the lucky one as I could rake my leaves!
"We watched the line of flames barely 200 yards from our house holding our breath," she explained. "I really wasn't sure we would have anything left, but the path they bulldozed held up and kept the fires at bay."
"They lost everything," my cousin's voice cracked as she tried to explain, "just hours after they left."
There has been no rain in more than a month here and in California (an many other places as well.) Mother Nature's beauty has been muted by the loss of one of her super-healing powers, rain.
My slice today, is a slice of perspective.
2 comments:
What a good reminder! I need to practice this, along with the “it could always be worse” strategy. That reminds me, my last principal share the “get to” strategy. “I GET TO rake leaves,” instead of “I HAVE TO rake leaves.” I used that often in the last number of years, but haven’t recently. Your post helped me remember it. I’ll add that to my “toolbox”. Thanks for sharing!
I couldn't believe it when I heard there was a wildfire up by you. I was shocked. I cannot even remember that happening before.
Goodness, we need to take better care of our planet.
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