It had been a difficult few weeks. We all have them. Sometimes a good solution is to break away from our regular routine and surround ourselves with different scenery. Maybe if we get out of the daily grind, we can view things differently and recharge.
My friend and I lived about eight hours away from each other. We would see each other a few times a year, taking turns at her home and then mine. I called her and asked if she would be interested in meeting me halfway between our two cities. I had found a spot I wanted to check out, and this seemed like the perfect opportunity.
Both of us enjoyed getting out and about and loved exploring new locations. This place seemed to have everything we were looking for. It was a small lake community in the foothills of the nearby mountains and was definitely a getaway destination. From our research, it looked like we had some options for what we could do once we got there. We could kayak, paddleboard, or swim in the lake if we chose to go that route. We could do a little hiking or ride our bikes around the village. We could also simply hang out at the coffee shop and chit-chat, another favorite pastime of ours.
So, I loaded up and hit the road, trying to leave early enough to beat the midday heat. It had been a hot summer, so the Central Valley looked dried up and burned-out. I remember thinking it looked like how I was feeling. I was looking forward to the cooler temperatures at the higher altitude. I drove about three hours in the valley, and then the road shot off to the east to start the climb up the mountainside. At first, the climb was slow, but it wasn’t long until the road became narrow and steep. As I wove around the mountaintop, leaving the dry valley floor behind me, I was surprised at how quickly things changed. With every mile, there was less yellow, and more green. And once I hit the tree line, it continued to get even more beautiful, with oak trees and pine trees filling in the empty spaces. The air was cooler and cleaner. I opened the windows of the car and turned off the air-conditioning.
I continued for a few more miles, as I zigzagged my way up the mountain. The view completely changed when I came around a significant curve in the road. This side of the mountain had been part of the devastating Creek Fire, the largest single fire in California history, with more than 379,00 acres burned. Everything was burned, as far as my eyes could see. We’re not taking scorched; we’re talking completely black, including the forest floor. Even the air changed as I drove through the burn area. The smell of smoke was so intense I had to close my windows and turn the A/C back on as I continued up the mountain. Shortly before arriving at my destination, I again crossed the fire line, bringing me back into the beautiful untouched part of the forest.
Once inside the village, it was easy to forget the devastation around us. The village was untouched, as were the surrounding cabins and the lakeshore. The small town had been spared. The locals boast of courageous firefighting and SCE’s forestry team that had worked for over three decades to protect the area’s forest.
The next afternoon we decided to climb a bit higher. I wanted to take some pictures looking down at the lake. I had already taken some great photos from the shoreline, and I thought it would be fun to take some pictures from the mountainside above it. As we drove, I was again reminded of the horrible ruin the fire had left behind. We found a turnout, parked the car, and hiked up a hill where we would be able to stand on top of a mountain peak and see the lake below. As we stood at the bottom of the hill, there were bits of ash and soot all around, but had we known what the top of the hill would look like, I’m not sure we would have made the climb. When we reached the top, I was overwhelmed. There was not a single surface, horizontal or vertical, that wasn’t covered in ash. With every step we took, the black ash seemed to float around us. The granite rocks we climbed up and over to get to the top were also black and covered in soot. There were no trees and no grass, just a few burned sticks about four feet tall standing vertically in the black dirt. This went on for miles and miles to our east. It felt odd to be standing in such destruction.
We walked over to the edge, and there below us, to the west, was the lake. Looking in this direction, the view was gorgeous. How odd that we could stand in one spot and look at two completely different worlds.
Once we got the pictures we were looking for, we started looking more closely at the details around us. When we started looking for signs of life, it was amazing what we could find. We realized there was life even here in all this death and darkness. We noticed how many of those charred sticks had bits of small green leaves peeking out of the black dirt at their base. They were regrowing from their roots. Some small green leaves of ground cover took off in all directions, but they were hardly noticeable underneath the black earth. We also found a plant flowering in the shade of a fallen, burned tree providing shelter. Life was there, but it was in the small details.
At first, we simply couldn’t see there was life through all that darkness and sorrow. Sometimes we need to look a little closer, a little deeper, or maybe right down to the roots to find the beauty. I realized it was much easier to see beauty in the unscathed forest in front of us than to see beauty in the ashes behind us.
When I started the hike up that hill, I was wearing clean, spotless clothes and bright, white tennis shoes, but I was feeling completely burned-out. However, when I got back to the car, I had smudges of soot on my legs, hands, arms, and face. My clothes were filthy, and my shoes were black and ruined.
Yet, I felt so much better.
When we’re feeling burned-out, we need to remember there is beauty in the ashes. It might be a little difficult to find, but it’s there.
The forest will regrow, and so will we.
Wishing you joy and peace,
Lorrie
The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives, and release from darkness the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion, to bestow on them a crow of beauty for ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and the garment of praise instead of the spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord, for the display of his splendor. – Isaiah 61:1-3