{"id":5357,"date":"2017-10-11T15:24:49","date_gmt":"2017-10-11T22:24:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lifeinfullcolor.com\/?p=5357"},"modified":"2017-10-11T15:24:49","modified_gmt":"2017-10-11T22:24:49","slug":"october-11-2017-riding-currents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeinfullcolor.com\/dev\/life-stories\/october-11-2017-riding-currents\/","title":{"rendered":"October 11, 2017 &#8211; Riding the currents"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"fcbkbttn_buttons_block\" id=\"fcbkbttn_left\"><div class=\"fcbkbttn_button\">\n                            <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">\n                                <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.lifeinfullcolor.com\/dev\/wp-content\/plugins\/facebook-button-plugin\/images\/standard-facebook-ico.png\" alt=\"Fb-Button\" \/>\n                            <\/a>\n                        <\/div><div class=\"fcbkbttn_like \"><fb:like href=\"https:\/\/www.lifeinfullcolor.com\/dev\/life-stories\/october-11-2017-riding-currents\/\" action=\"like\" colorscheme=\"light\" layout=\"standard\"  width=\"225px\" size=\"small\"><\/fb:like><\/div><\/div><div id=\"attachment_5358\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.lifeinfullcolor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/light-from-the-fires.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5358\" class=\"wp-image-5358\" src=\"http:\/\/www.lifeinfullcolor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/light-from-the-fires.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"590\" height=\"445\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.lifeinfullcolor.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/light-from-the-fires.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.lifeinfullcolor.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/light-from-the-fires-300x227.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.lifeinfullcolor.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/light-from-the-fires-200x151.jpg 200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 590px) 100vw, 590px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-5358\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The trail streaked with orange light &#8211; sun shining through smoke in the air.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Listen to this post:<\/p>\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-5357-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"http:\/\/www.lifeinfullcolor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/20171011-Post.m4a?_=1\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/www.lifeinfullcolor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/20171011-Post.m4a\">http:\/\/www.lifeinfullcolor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/20171011-Post.m4a<\/a><\/audio>\n<p>I woke at 4:30am on Monday morning and whispered to Joe that I smelled smoke.\u00a0 He asked me:\u00a0 inside or outside?\u00a0 Outside, I smell wildfire.\u00a0 A bit later I got up to go to the bathroom and check Marin County Fire\u2019s Twitter feed.\u00a0 No fires in Marin County, the smoke and ash were from the fires in Sonoma and Napa.\u00a0 Poking around online I read the news &#8211; and two devastating days later it\u2019s not getting better, more acres burned, more structures gone, more fatalities, hundreds more people determined to be missing.\u00a0 We live about 30-40 miles from the fires and there was ash falling on our patio on Monday morning.\u00a0 The winds brought the ash all the way to us and beyond &#8211; and they made these fires deadly. Another week, more death and destruction, and this time very close to home.\u00a0 So, where does a return to beauty come in with all <em>this<\/em> going on?<\/p>\n<p>I had to work in Joe\u2019s office on Monday but the last two days I\u2019ve had a hard time focusing.\u00a0 I want to do something practical \u2013 I want to cook for people or give them a safe, soft place to express their emotions. I\u2019m hearing there are already too many people showing up at the shelters wanting to help.\u00a0 So I made <a href=\"http:\/\/ceresproject.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">a donation to the organization closest to my heart \u2013 Ceres Community Project<\/a> \u2013 who are cooking for evacuated people in the shelters.\u00a0 And I\u2019m doing my best to just hold space for all that is happening \u2013 all the hard work, all the worry, all the grief, all the relief.\u00a0 The best parts of me know holding space \u2013 being present to all that is going on <em>is<\/em> valuable, <em>is<\/em> needed, but it\u2019s so much more satisfying to help in a material way.\u00a0 It\u2019s actually a privilege to do so \u2013 to make that kind of difference in people\u2019s lives.<\/p>\n<p>After preaching last week to turn away from the endless news of how people are suffering, I\u2019ve been feeling sheepish about doing just that this week.\u00a0 Even with that voice in my head, telling me to turn it off and go paint \u2013 or write, I couldn\u2019t.\u00a0 One of us in our community has a ranch that is close to one of the fires and I\u2019ve been so distracted with following that fire\u2019s progress; it\u2019s not one of the big fires, so information has been hard to get.\u00a0 Plus she has some art in a caf\u00e9 in the Napa Valley that is under threat \u2013 these paintings are our babies and to think of them being incinerated is heartbreaking.\u00a0 Another of us has a sister-in-law in the Valley of the Moon in Sonoma whose home and stables were in the path of the fire \u2013 I\u2019ve been keeping tabs on that area too.\u00a0 Last night I said to my mom, this could have been us \u2013 we live in an area prime for wild land fire like this.\u00a0 We just never know.<\/p>\n<p>This morning Bo and I went up the hill for the first time since Sunday.\u00a0 It\u2019s been just too smoky and not good for our lungs.\u00a0 As we were heading up through a section of small live oaks I noticed the sun streaks on the ground were <em>orange<\/em>.\u00a0 The sunrises and sunsets this week have had the sun a glowing ball of orange near the horizon.\u00a0 But this was later &#8211; though the sky was hazy from smoke, the sun was white. How curious that streaks of light coming through the trees were October orange?<\/p>\n<p>As we were cresting the hill I noticed a hawk floating above the ridgeline, just hanging there in the air facing into the cool wind, looking for breakfast on the ground.\u00a0 I\u2019m fascinated watching birds ride air currents like this &#8211; no wings flapping, not moving over the ground, still and aloft.\u00a0 The hawk gave me my instructions for the day: ride the currents.\u00a0 There\u2019s no stopping the wind so find a way to ride it.\u00a0 I have no idea what it is like to be in the situation that so many have found themselves in.\u00a0 Life was normal on Sunday and just like that it\u2019s not.\u00a0 And it won\u2019t be anything close to normal for a very long time.\u00a0 All I can do is be with what is \u2013 my distractedness, my worry, my sorrow for the bad news and my appreciation for good news.\u00a0 I just got a text that the sister-in-law\u2019s place in Sonoma is fine as are her two horses and cat she had to leave behind in the middle of the night.<\/p>\n<p>Beauty is here now, it is always here.\u00a0 I found it in strange orange light this morning.\u00a0 But in times like this beauty seems to show up especially vibrantly in how people care for each other and band together &#8211; the beauty in human spirit.\u00a0 I\u2019m going to end here today. And spend some time with my painting \u2013 really, I will.<\/p>\n<p>With my love \u2013<\/p>\n<p>Cara<\/p>\n ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Listen to this post: I woke at 4:30am on Monday morning and whispered to Joe that I smelled smoke.\u00a0 He asked me:\u00a0 inside or outside?\u00a0 Outside, I smell wildfire.\u00a0 A bit later I got up to go to the bathroom and check Marin County Fire\u2019s Twitter feed.\u00a0 No fires in Marin County, the smoke and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5357","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life-stories"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.2 - 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