A silent moment for....
10/29/2003 01:37 p.m.
After the devastating long August through to the present (to some degree) battle with forest fires in Kelowna and surrounding areas in B.C., (and now the terrible flooding in B.C. and remembering the hurricane off Nova Scotia recently,)yet another disastrous affront in California with the fires stuns us into more shock and grief. And the recognition that despite the ability to venture onto a couple of other planets, to maneuver technology via computers and seeming to command instant powerful communications etc. man is still terribly vulnerable to the elements. In some cases, our own manipulation and alteration of the landscape, changing forestation to accomodate our houses, and affecting nature's ecological s defenses,enhance and increase the rapid spread of fire. From what I'm hearing on the news, there is suspicion of arson involved in the start of at least one of the series of fires in California, and human error in another.

In the 80’s my mom and I took a lovely trip to California, and were delighted with the Napa, and San Francisco areas. We couldn’t obviously cover all of the state, but I have a painting in my living room of Highway I along the coast, a friend here who grew up there created, and it’s an area we enjoyed on our bus trip down. California’s also seemed closer to me recently, being the origin of this site and my friends from there, and with Palabra Productions contests (and Don Campbell's literary sharing of these) being very good to me, that group awarding me second prize in their August publication, for Childhood Summer Vignettes, and earlier publication inclusions. I’ve often wished I could go to one of the readings in San Gabriel. I don’t know if they’re anywhere near the fires, I pray not. But all of California is in mourning, indeed. And the States, as we have been for the disasters here, when human and animal life are taken especially. Watching the news last night, I was upset about the description of a mountain area now lacking the wildlife it had been known for. I thought of the innocent little and large beasts, fallen victim. There hadn't been human life taken at that section, thankfully, but it struck me when the reporter stressed it was so lively with animals usually. The material and economical hits are considerable, but it’s brought home yet again to citizens that it’s the lives(human and non) that are always an unredeemable loss.

Sites renowned for comfortable climates and superior scenic beauty are now victims of destruction, and hosts of unsafe and random risk. For the people who live in the places of disaster right now, I send my deepest concern and prayers. A friend of my husband’s at work just lost her nephew in the Whistler, B.C. area flooding, and he was only twenty-six. It seems an unpredictable and cruel fluke that he was crossing a bridge in his vehicle when it was taken down by the flooding, and some of his friends with him survived, but his body is still awash.

I feel a sense of guilt when I think of how I’ve envied travelers and citizens of B.C. and Nova Scotia, etc. living there, at times, and that propelled me to write Kelowna Called, this September, a new version of a poem I’d written - Kelowna Calls, when wishing to go on a trip there when my husband went last year on business. Soon after, so much was altered, that the new version had to be created. Perhaps soon I’ll post it.

So blessings to all affected, and may we learn better as humans to prevent further crises, and accommodate nature and safety more readily and wisely. Those pages of the Bible that we as children (and particularly my daughter)dreaded, of the disastrous floods, and the words of fire, seem to haunt....
I am currently Devoted
I am listening to the news in the distance