“The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.” -Nelson Mandela
It’s that time of the year down here with summer coming the bush fire season is upon us. It’s been unusually hot for this time of year.
We keep our eye out for outbreaks, but like most people, we think disasters happen to other people.
But on Tuesday it happened. The forecast was for catastrophic weather conditions, high temps in the 35+ and high westerly winds.
From early morning our local radio was issuing warnings. Soon they were talking about our neck of the woods.
We could see the smoke getting ever closer.
Surely it would blow round us, and we’d be ok.
Soon though the news was to get out. Take what we could and run for it.
The heat was overwhelming, the wind ferocious, the embers from the fire were blowing in on us.
There was a fire in the gutters, and soon it was spreading.
There was nothing we could do.
As we drove away from our home, we feared all would be lost.
And it was.
Days later we ventured back to find our home a pile of ashes, twisted metal from what was once our back deck, nothing recognisable, we had lost everything bar the shirts on our backs.
It took us a while to recover, the pain of what we had worked so hard to build was raw, but we had a resolve to re-build, and create a new place to call home.
Written for: https://mindlovemiserysmenagerie.wordpress.com/2019/11/24/sunday-writing-prompt-overcoming-adversity/
It’s the most difficult thing to do in life- rebuilding after a loss. But yet the most satisfying too
Yes and courage to do so
Exactly!
There are so many displaced by many disasters. Rebuilding after any physical and emotional disaster/ adversity is great. We always think – the other person…yet with our family being involved with the fire rescue service we see this all the time (not just due to weather) – and we are thankful of all the volunteers that come out to help those who are displaced. Your piece is a reminder that we can rebuild – even with our hearts saddled with so much sadness. And to be prepared as well as to listen to warnings.