Pics of San Diego and the Witch Fire. As you all know from the previous post, my very good friend lives in San Diego where I was visiting her this weekend for the pumpkin festival. We noticed the smoke Sunday afternoon, but never thought it would get this bad. It wasnt until I drove back home to Irvine, to another fire there, that I realized how bad this was.

Pics of the pumpkin festival as the Witch Fire approaches. Can you see the bales of hay still there?? Now they are smoldering with fire:

Before, as taken this last weekend:The winds of San Diego:

If anything after reading this post, please realize that my friends Melissa and Dave have been evacuated and their house is in the "red" zone, meaning the bad area. Please, despite Melissa's calmness, think of them and pray for all the people affected by this.

Here's the best picture I could get of the Irvine (Santiago) fire. This is as seen from my doorstep:

Its hard to get pics of because the screen on my camera is broken and I cant play around with the flash to get a clear picture though the smoke.

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On Sunday October 21st, southern California residents watched in awe and confusion as cities across our beautiful terrain went up in flames. My first thought upon learning about the fires was how unfortunate it was for all the landscape to be burned. Then of course I thought of the animals. Now, I am thinking of the people. Yesterday they estimated 1000 homes and commericial businesses have been destroyed due to what could be an arson attack fueled by heavy winds. That is, some 356,000 residents have been evacuated, and a few remain determined to not seperate from their memories, and their homes. At least arson is the story here in Orange County. What could make people so malicious to do something like this? In a world of uncertainty, constantly surrounded by anger, war, politics, and greed; I think it seems rather descriptive that now we are surrounded by fires as well. Is it global warming? Is it terrorism? What is going wrong with the world?

My boyfriend, my personal philosopher, could argue that the world is not getting worse that its always been this way. Is this the way human kind is? What changes do we need to make to help ourselves, our world, and continue living? He says its survival of the fittest. I say then its time that we, "the fittest" make a change.

But despite all of that, what can seem like chaos in an already chaotic world, there is still love...there is still peace. Emerging out of the smoke, quite literally, people still find time to smile and think "hey, life IS good". At least that is the favorite quote by some old friends I had the opportunity of visiting with on Monday.

Years ago, when I was around 3 years old, I was flying back from visiting my great-grandmother in Florida with my mom and kept falling asleep on the lap of the man next to me. Of course my mom kept trying to keep me up, and tried to direct my falling, but I kept doing it. This got this very nice man and my mom chatting. They became friends and Steve, along with his canine companion Orson, became very close friends of ours as I was growing up. Through a chain of people, Steve introduced my mom to his close friend Barb and since my mom is so likeable :) they became friends too. Now, all these years later, I had the opportunity to go visit Barb and her significant other John at their cute home in Laguna Beach. We had a wonderful dinner and even had time to sit outside and enjoy the cool breeze (although mixed in with smoke) on their patio.

As I drove home, passing through the smoke of two different fires, I watched the waves break upon the shore of the Pacific coast. Over and over again, they tumbled, they kept coming, and it was so peaceful. Maybe, despite all uncertainties and continuous misfortunes, peace can come in many different forms.

Pray for rain,
Pray for peace,
Pray for stillness,
PRAY FOR UNDERSTANDING,
and just say "ohm".... :)