Ever been to Iceland?
A few years ago, my son and his girlfriend traveled there. They loved it! The stark beauty of the landscape; the carved out coastline; the friendliness of the people there. They even caught a glimpse of the magical Northern Lights, but only once due to weather conditions. I thought about Iceland this wintry month of February as there has been some impressive volcanic activity there–you know, the land of “fire and ice.” The word, “fire” really resonates with me, especially in the month of February. My family and I went through the trauma of a house fire in February, back in 2001. It has been many years since it happened, but the memory will stay with us forever. My husband and I were not home at the time. Our high-school aged kids were coming home late from an away basketball game that night. They knew we would be home early the next morning. The electricity went out and my son built a fire in the wood stove. He was worried because it kept smoking. He had the wherewithal to have his sister, whose bedroom was in the loft, to come downstairs to sleep. Several hours later, the loft filled with smoke: unbeknownst to us, there was a crack in the metal asbestos chimney. The house burned to the ground. Thankfully, our kids escaped. So did our beloved dog. Sam, our cat, did not. He slept in the loft where my daughter usually slept. The firetrucks made the trek down our winding, icy, dirt road to our house. The firemen had to chop a hole in the ice on the lake to pump water. A neighbor contacted us about the house fire at 4 A.M. that next morning. We didn’t know if the kids were Ok at that point, which spurred my husband to travel the fifty minute ride in record time. By the time we got there, my son had wandered off in the woods in shock after getting his sister and the dog out; our daughter was in the ambulance, shaken up but Ok. The fire marshal later found my son, dazed and rattled, but OK. We lost the house and all its contents, but that didn’t matter; the kids were safe.
While I don’t dwell on this memory, it is hard to ignore when people in Eaton and Palisades, California, have gone through multiple fires recently. The physical and emotional loss of their homes is something I can relate to. My heart is with them. But I also try to think of February as the month of LOVE: love for a special person; love for family, love for a friend, love for a pet, and love for a community. The outpouring of love that my family experienced after the fire from the community I grew up in, to the community we moved to, was both touching and overwhelming. Clothes, gift cards, food, basketball sneakers from my son’s teammate, and many other things sometimes from perfect strangers, came from these communities. People came together and most importantly, offered caring and kindness. We saw this in California, too, didn’t we? It is these kinds of things that give me hope about our humanity.
In spite of February sharing her winter’s “glory” with us, it is a good thing to think about Spring, which is just around the corner! With Spring comes planting and beautiful flowers bursting through the soil. And in thinking about soil, even scorched or burned, there is hope, because in the aftermath of fires, nutrients are released into the soil through dead vegetation; phosphorus, potassium, and calcium are added from the ash; and new space and growth of seedlings is created.
So, plant like mad this Spring! Invite friends and community to share in the beauty and bounty of your garden! Harvest caring and kindness and watch it bloom.
