Safe is the good fortune of loving friends who offer their guest room to the three of us and our dog, opening their home to us when we felt unsure about the future of our own. And today, as the Eaton fire has been 27% contained and we consider returning home,
safe is a conditional sigh of relief tinged with survivor's guilt and incongruous uncertainty as strong winds are predicted through the next three days... adding a smattering of worries but mostly a new, surging wave of fear for friends whose homes in the paths of both the Eaton and Palisades fires
have been threatened nonstop since Tuesday evening. The number of close friends who are suddenly homeless is staggering. Much of our own community has been in Pasadena and Altadena for the past 15 years. And the more arial views of obliterated land I see,
the more I grasp what has been wiped off the map, more than I had even imagined. Flattened. I find myself scrolling through past Evites to cross-check home addresses with maps of devastation.
Gone is the sweetest Waldorf school where our son was never a student but whose Elves Faire brought such pure joy to the community. Gone are little pencil marks on the insides of pantry doors to show children's growth.
Gone is someone's ancient dictionary, incinerated save for this remnant page lifted by wind to land a few miles away in our driveway, speaking the volumes none of the above words possibly can.
If you want to help any of our friends and community members who have lost everything in the fires, here are some GoFundMe pages:
www.gofundme.com/f/fire-relie...
www.gofundme.com/f/friends-ho...
www.gofundme.com/f/help-the-h...
www.gofundme.com/f/6xuaeb-hel...