We’ll Rise from the Ashes

 
It’s a day like no other. The sun is nowhere to be found. It looks more like twilight that I have to turn on the lights.

The skies are dark and tinted with orange caused by wildfires burning all across Northern California. Although I live many miles from the nearest fire, I could still smell the smoke.

It’s almost quiet outside. It feels like a prologue to the apocalypse. I hear no fluttering of the breeze through the trees. There’s nary a sound except for the chirping of a lonely bird.

So far over two million acres have been burned. Already considered a state record, the fire season is far from over.

I’d lived in California for years and this is the first time I’d seen its population face so many challenges brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic and the current wildfires. The impact on the economy and life as we know it will be felt for a very long time.

I want to believe we’ll get through these current challenges, like those that came before. We’ll rise from the ashes and rebuild our dreams. Our head may get bloody, to paraphrase a poem, but we’ll remain unbowed.