6/17/2019

What Remains After the Forest Fire Behind Our Cabin in Loafer Canyon

This is all that remains of "Big Tree"
the largest white pine west of the Mississippi.
We loved taking hikes to this tree with our family
through a shaded forest filled with lush vegetation.
Now the forest is gone.
I'm standing in the charred remains of the forest behind our cabin among the black ghosts of trees.
My husband Ross is standing on top of the mountain behind our cabin
looking out over the burned terrain
after the raging forest fire last summer.
These beautiful mountains were once thick with trees and foliage.
The forest floor is now covered with sterile ash
and the charred remains of old growth pines
that will never return.
All the beautiful trees are gone like a dream in the night.
Tall stately pines that took hundreds of years to mature
into our beloved forest are now gone.
There is no wildlife or sounds of birds.
Even the wind is still as if to mourn our loss.
Yet if I look at my feet, I see a single blade of grass
brave the desolation and destruction.
Life will go on.
Though life will never be the same on our mountain
there will be more beauty to come.

As recent fires in my life
have raged
threatening to destroy my peace and joy,
yet
I will go on.
For the refiners fire burns away all the dross
and only love and hope remain.

1 comment:

Diana said...

I am sad to read of your loss. You express with few words how it happened, just like fire that quickly burns up beauty and life. Those fires last fall burned up our riding trails, our cows’ annual paths up the mountains, the fences, corrals, water troughs, and camping sites we cherished. The desolation of scorched earth brought the heart breaking loss of 20 pairs of cows. Yet like your little blade of grass audaciously growing straight up to the sky, the mountains now are velvety green rolling hills, with water flooding pastures, and calves staying close to their mamas in new grazing acres.