Home
By Suzy Norris
We’re home. Our birds are ecstatic as they burst out of that little confining cage and fly and fly, singing and twirling around their living room…joyjoyjoy! Doggies are not quite so sure…kinda scared and clingy, but picking up steam as we wander around exploring our new world of ash and burned leaf cinders, old and young smoke, and this eerie quiet feeling to things. Where are the birds who used to sing from all the trees? A profound feeling of death hovers and hums.
What I’m discovering about sliding along inside a big trauma-event like this, is that there’s a lot to process, and arriving home kinda gave my soul the message that it could let go and stop living in this numb, dazed place, and start feeling things again. Exhaustion has set in. And the need to keep on moving too as many basic survival tasks requiring clear brains ask for immediate attention. We wander around dazed, trying to get the water system up and running so we can drink, bathe, and water dying plants too. Things to do!
Today as we drive up our bumpy farm road, home from food shopping in town, we look off to the north and notice that the hills are charred and strangely orangey-red. There’s something about having one’s world sprout wings of fire…it changes things so FAST, and since returning home, we’ve been propelled by a deep underlying need to do whatever a band of humans can do to make life whole again, while preparing our lands and spirits for the inevitable fires rolling over the hills of our futures.
The good news is that we now have a new pump down at the creek and water on both sides of the road!!! We’ve also been preparing insurance claims for help with repairing the road which got pretty torn up by the big firebreak-building bulldozer.
Alongside us, dear friends and neighbors are now rootless, the scarred burned hillsides that once supported their homes are all that is left of their old lives. My soul quietly shakes with each step I take, carrying those dear friends along with me in my close-heart places…wanting to help and soothe, nurture, and bring a little peace to this wildly changing world.
Life these days is way too much really, but here just the same. We vibrate along, letting the SOS of fire-life roll through us, and somehow there is so much beauty too…friends helping friends…people coming together and caring for one another. Soft sweet kindness holding everything that hurts and cries with great tenderness.
Read more about Bonny Doon resident Suzy Norris and her fine art at suzynorris.com.
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