All for a reason.

We are often told that everything happens for a reason, and while sometimes it is unclear as to why or what that reason is while it’s happening, it can become abundantly clear later.

For example; Spring of the year I had been looking forward to fund raising for a volunteer stay in Guatemala, where I would be able to teach and share a new skill with the indigenous people of a western region there. I had set my goal arrival date from October 21st-November 15 th of this year , if I had arrived in Guatemala on time, I  would have been volunteering the time of this weeks big quake, within that same region.

It’s been a VERY  intense month with my family, My son turned 16 and well, he turned 16, I think that’s enough said. Meanwhile, I learned that a family member has an illness which will require surgery and to that end my family is traveling to be with her during that time. My father lives in another “metro” area to the southwest of here and my sister is driving from El Paso to California. I decided to fly halfway and then ride with my sister the other half of the way. Last night I learned I will actually be flying with my dad to Seattle, so I will spend my morning with my dad, my afternoon/evening with my sister! Sounds good to me!

 

I am especially looking forward to the drive across the Sonoran and Mojave deserts. I’m one who is more for the trees and mountains and cold air, but there are times when even the desolate space becomes a curiosity.

I’m knee deep in training for a walk across the Pacific Northwest trail in July and maybe this respite from the cold Montana “almost” Winter season that replaces Autumn for us will be a good thing!

 

 

 

 

 

Montana Ablaze.

I’m not sure what it’s like to have a summer without wildfires, for as long as I can remember in my time in Montana, there has always been “fire season”, It has always created the hallmark amber evenings of August, kissing the golden grass with a deeper honey colored stain.  Every now and again, The season comes early, the land becomes dry , the late days of Spring feel like those of a hot summer and it is on the wind. You can feel it, smell it even. The people will chatter about their predictions and then a silence falls upon the land, the earth takes a shuttering breath and everyone waits. It’s the first big one breaks out and there are camps of volunteers and firefighters along back country roads, each camp bustling with activity. Nearby ranchers move their herds and the helicopters fly low for a water pick up.  It’s not unfamiliar in our Montana.

What is frustrating is the lack of respect, from humans. Believing that they are exempt from the laws mother nature has imposed,  They are careless with flame and sparks, fireworks and cigarettes, In our town alone on the 4th of July we had 24 fires. That is in an area of a 10 mile circumference. It’s worrisome to say the least.

But still when it comes to the nature cause fires, one must think, this is about renewal not destruction, that after the earth takes a breath, she looks about and sees cluttering underbrush and dead trees, she uses fire to renew them.

As I blogged from Townsend last week, the afternoon sky turned the color of sunset and in the distance I began to heat the tell tale thuds of choppers. I walked to the end of the block and there not 2 miles at most away was a wild fire.  The indian creek fire only surmounted to 500 acres before mother nature sighed and opened up a rare heavy thunderstorm (for the area) and left the air heavy with the smell of damp smoke and yet, the whole place felt refreshed.

The image with the helicopter is a story of it’s own, but in brief it of a rancher moving his herd to a safer location while the helicopter dips water for the fire from a nearby river.

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