Tomorrow Will Be Kinder

What a week.

I'm sure everyone is tired of hearing about the Waldo Canyon fire in Colorado Springs but it defined this week for me as I'm sure it did for a lot of people. I'm not feeling very eloquent on this topic but I want to write about it anyway.

I had made a pouty face when I first heard about the fire because I've hiked Waldo Canyon many times and I'm a sentimental person who doesn't like it when things that hold sentimental value for me are marred. So, I was sad to hear that it was burning but the whole state seems to be on fire so I pouted and moved on with my daily routine. Then I realized my best friend Amy lives close to Waldo Canyon and found out she had already left her new house (that they bought a few months ago) and I started to get worried. On Monday I traveled to Colorado Springs for work and I remember thinking in the morning that the smoke didn't look that bad and I felt hopeful that they were making good progress. I left work Monday evening and things had taken a dramatic turn. I was watching the eerie smoke stream from behind the hill and the sun was setting in a nice, creepy blood red hue and I was no longer encouraged. Of course, you all know how Tuesday went down. I was on my lunch break and noticed there was a new plume of smoke behind the Flat Irons and sure enough, we could add a new fire to the list. Then I started to see horrible pictures stream to facebook of Colorado Springs and I did more than pout. I saw pictures of Flying W Ranch burning and that seemed impossible. That is not too far from the heart of Colorado Springs and these wild fires don't come into town, right? Then they were evacuating the neighborhoods. Perrigrine, where one of my best friends in high school used to live. Rockrimmon, where my high school boyfriend used to live. The Sunbird was evacuated- where we had our wedding reception. Mountain Shadows- not far from where my parent's church used to be. It started to feel like someone had taken a match to my childhood memories. Brian turned on the news and the whole ridge was on fire and houses were burning. I felt sick to my stomach because it just felt like it would never stop.

I stole this picture from my sister-in-law. Their view from the hill by UCCS.

When I just couldn't take seeing anymore destruction, Brian suggested we take a walk. We stepped out into our neighborhood to find a full rainbow. It was a nice reminder of God's covenant with us and even though a rainbow deals more with massive floods it reminded me that God is bigger than all of this and that He is always present. I kept running a line from the Lord's prayer in my head, "...save us in the time of trial and deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory. Forever and ever."

We sat and watched the sunset and it was a brilliant sunset, made more brilliant by the fire in Boulder. It was a nice moment of serenity in the midst of chaos.

I have never prayed for rain so hard in my life. I also felt guilty for all of my previous wishes for a mild winter and that my wish came true this time. Lesson learned. From here on out, I'm praying for it to dump snow on us so we don't go through drought like this for a long, long time.

In the end, my family was spared. They did not have to evacuate and we didn't personally lose anything. I know my emotional stress comes from a different place than the people who actually did lose a lot and my heart goes out to them. I hope this is the worst of this fire storm & I hope July gives us rain.

Most of our conversations (probably because I keep bringing it up) revolve around fires and what we would do if our house was ever threatened. I guess you're supposed to catalog all that you own and then make a list of what you can't replace. Then you divide who takes what and put the list in order so if you run out of time you grab the most important things first. I have become regrettably aware of how attached I am to my material things. Brian was giving me examples of items you would put on the CAN'T REPLACE list and he said, "For instance, you wouldn't put your movies on there" and my jaw dropped. "What do you mean I can't take my movies?" ~sigh~ I've got a lot of mental letting-go to do.

Yesterday we decided to go hiking in the afternoon. We ended up near Brainard Lake and hiked up to Long Lake and Isabelle Lake and it was such a nice way to end this week. I was overwhelmed by God's glory through the amazing beauty that surrounded us. It was such a relief to see snow and water running down the mountains from that snow. It was a joy to see lots of green and to get a break from the 100 degree temperatures. If you ever get a chance to do this hike, take it! It's amazing.

It was pretty stormy when we arrived. This is Brian telling me how close the storm was based on the thunder. We chose to keep going and were later greeted by the sun.

Little Stella-Bean. She got very dirty.

I don't have captions for all of these; I think they speak for themselves:

See. Very dirty paws.

This is a whole flock of Columbines.

Pretty amazing scenery, right?

Anywho, I've been listening to the Hunger Games soundtrack this week and will leave Colorado Springs, Boulder, Fort Collins, Grand Junction, and, well, too many places in Colorado with these lyrics: