1/14/24:
I lived in the LA area for a little over 13 years, so hearing about the fires hit me hard. The destruction was close to home—nature sanctuaries I once visited, clients’ houses I used to frequent, all reduced to ash. Friends were forced to evacuate, and it brought back vivid memories of my own evacuation during the Marshall Fire in Boulder, Colorado.
I was watching a news clip of a mother and her pre-teen son being interviewed by a newscaster as they evacuated at night. I was mesmerized. It wasn’t the blazing fire in the background that held my attention but the boy’s expression. He gazed into the camera lights, his bright blue eyes piercing through the moment’s intensity. His eyes cut through the darkness with such clarity and vulnerability—strong, unflinching, and alive. It struck a chord in my heart, a poignant reminder of our resilience and shared humanity.
Los Angeles:
We witness the wild, transformative force of fire,
its fury met with silent awe.
When the light of truth burns bright enough,
it shatters the illusions we mistake for permanence.
With wide, unresisting eyes,
the heart stretches beyond its borders,
beyond the mind’s confinement,
to embrace all that unfolds.
Devastation reshapes us,
drawing us into the raw, unprecedented present.
It calls us to hold one another tenderly,
to step together into the mystery,
into the shared current of we.
I wonder—
will this city embody its name,
awakening as if we are the same:
City of Angels.
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