Fire on the Mountain

“Do not trouble yourself much to get new things, whether clothes or friends… Sell your clothes and keep your thoughts.” Henry David Thoreau

In the summer of 2002 my wife and I purchased our first home, located outside of Durango, CO. It was a nice home located on one wooded acre in a neighborhood built into the forest. It was everything we ever wanted. We had a nice view and plenty of peace and quiet. This was our American Dream and we were so proud. 

Shortly after we moved into our home a huge wildfire was started near Durango known as the Missionary Ridge Fire.  The fire grew very large due to very dry conditions and the past success of the Smokey the Bear campaign which has loaded the forests with so much fuel.  I didn’t think much about it for the first couple of days because the fire started so far from our home but the fire grew everyday and it got closer and closer.  I started thinking about how our house was surrounded by forest with inches and inches of pine needles covering the forest floor.  So I spent two full days raking the pine needles away from our house.  I hoped this effort would help keep my investment safe.

As the fire grew and spread east it became clear that our neighborhood was at risk.  I sat on the deck watching an eerie red sunset as pieces of ash began falling all around me like snowflakes.  Alone on the deck sitting in a grey fog in an ash storm I suddenly felt a great deal of peace and accepted that there was nothing I could do.  The house would either burn or it wouldn’t.  It was no longer up to me.  The conditions outside of my control had created this and all I could do is worry about keeping me and my family safe.

We got a reverse 911 call giving us 30 minutes to evacuate the neighborhood.  Just thirty minutes?  What about all of my stuff?  My wife and I walked all around the house in a panic looking at our possessions.  There was so much stuff.  But was it truly important?

This was a moment of truth.  I walked room to room trying to decide what we had that we could not live without.  After a few minutes of thinking this was going to be hard I abruptly realized that I didn’t need any of it at all.  All of these possessions were replaceable.  There was almost nothing that really mattered to me or that I couldn’t live without.

My wife and I settled on our wedding album full of pictures of our special day, some of her jewelry, a folder full of important documents such as birth certificates, and our three dogs.  Then my wife pulled open the refrigerator.  Her blue eyes lit up and with a smile on her face she said, “We’ve got two beers left”.  I laughed at her ability to be calm and realistic in this moment of panic.  I said, “Grab ‘em”.

As we wound down the hill towards the bottom of the neighborhood we saw lines of neighbors with truck loads of crap that they couldn’t live without.  One truck pulled out in front of me pulling a speed boat packed full of TVs, elk heads, and miscellaneous possessions like he had just scored a major deal at a yard sale. We got such a kick out of laughing at the things our neighbors couldn’t live without that we nearly forgot a terrible disaster was working its way towards our home. I felt such peace knowing all I needed was my wife, the dogs, some pictures, and a couple of ice cold beers.  

After checking out with the National Guard at the entrance to the neighborhood we hit the state highway and headed to a friends house for safety. Looking in the rear-view mirror I could see the hillside behind my neighborhood burning with orange flames in the dark night.  Later I wondered how I kept it together so well, but I really was at peace with what would happen and I actually felt free. My neighbors could only see what they were going to lose but all I could see was how lucky I was to be free.

“Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose” -Kris Kristofferson from ‘Me and Bobbie McGee’

Tags: freedom, inspiration, simply your life

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 8th, 2009 at 9:15 pm and is filed under Simply Living, Take life in your own hands, The Story. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.