"Rising from the ashes"
By Bob Perks © 2001
We all have seen thousands of images of fire, destruction and loss of life over the past few days. After a while they all seem to blend into one horrific nightmare from which I want desperately to awaken.
I am a scavenger of hope. I crawl through life in between "obvious" and "imagined" searching for small glimpses, splinters of hope left behind after dreams are shattered. It's who I am and what I do.
An email sent to me by Thelma Hartselle, included several incredible images taken by Rich Yako. As I quickly scrolled down through the photos, one particular shot caught my eye. Not because of sharp contrasting images but because it looked like nothing. I wondered what the photographer saw in it. I moved on seeing pictures of burned out buses, police cars and fire, but something called me back to the one single photo.
"Why did he take this picture?" I asked myself.
"What did he see in it that I could not?"
© 2001 Rich Yako
What do you see?
Life!
I was suddenly stunned by the small image off to the right center near the top.
"How incredible!" I thought.
There in the new landscape that was created from the ashes and debris as a result of destruction, sat a man. He too, was covered in the remains of what once was a beautiful towering tribute to man's technical advancement and achievement.
There was the hope I was searching for.
It reminded me of the research I did after hearing about all of the forest fires. Back then my heart ached as I thought about the beautiful trees that grew for decades and forests that stood from the beginning of time, now destroyed forever.
My research though, was to the contrary. It is a fact that the forests return from the ashes. The heat from the fire below releases seeds in the pine cones and the same trees return to the soil. Even before that, "fireweed" replaces the ground cover and springs forth with beauty and vegetation returning the scorched landscape to a living breathing forest that sustains life again.
I looked even closer at this picture of blended gray images. Now I saw what the photographer saw. It suddenly was a beautiful example of mankind rising from the ashes of destruction.
The spirits and souls of all those buried beneath this rubble have long since risen. But still we remain there in our sorrow.
My friends, it is time for us all to rise from the ashes with them. Whether you find yourself buried in the images of this destruction or in your own personal battles, rise up, stand tall, and keep your head looking skyward.
We must dust ourselves off and wipe our brows clean. Let us all have the resilience of fireweed and bring color back into the landscape of this world.
The Forestry Service calls it "regeneration".
I call it the spirit of humanity rising to glorify God.
"Rising from the ashes!"
"I believe in you!"
Bob Perks © 2001
"Fireweed" Photo from the National Park Service