I live in Long Beach, not too far from the beach. It's considered LA County. This is the sky above my house, which is NOT near any of the fires! As you know fires have been burning up in LA County, which is north of me, the past few days. My store, Country Roads,is in Old Towne Orange. It's very close to the fires that are now burning. As I drove to work yesterday morning I noticed the sky ahead looking smokey. And as the day progressed, and as the news has told us this morning,there is fire everywhere! There is ash in the air and all on the ground, our roofs, and in our pools and gardens. As I was lucky and graciously able to water my garden this morning, I was reminded of the colors of nature that we find in our gardens. I still have my garden to water, my home to live in, and business to work at. I have no words to even begin to say what it must be like for those that suddenly don't have these things, these things that were so quickly taken away from them. No words at all! We've all had a tough year with the economy, but now with the fires and so much loss and devastation it is hard to find positive words. But then I'm reminded of hope and the goodness of others that have rushed to total strangers homes to help put on fires or hose down their roofs! I guess in the darkness of the smokey clouds, there is still that ray of hope and warmth in knowing that people are still good. Strangers still care about other strangers, they still help when they can. Right now, let's hope the weather gives us a break and puts an end to all the devastation. And most important, we all need to remember those simple things in life that we sometimes take for granite, like just being able to "have" a garden to water!
