I went back to my blog, revlizwritings, and noted that wildfires were the topic of two previous Creative Thoughts: In November 2018,when the Woolsey fire decimated Paradise and thousands were mandated to evacuate local areas, and then in December 2017. The scenes on the television were similar: homes destroyed, evacuations mandated, and first responders battled blazes on the ground while tankers and helicopters made drops of water and fire retardant. Lives were lost and words like “armageddon,”and “apocalyptic” were used in news stories.
I focused on “Gratitude” in 2017, saying: ”It’s easy to get sucked into negative thinking by all the things that go on in what we call this plane of reality or the world of conditions. But I feel a surge of gratitude for all the personnel and resources mobilized to combat this incredible firestorm.
I am grateful to live in a country, this USA, where we can pull together what’s needed for a catastrophe of this magnitude....and to see examples of generosity of spirit, of people pulling together in times of crisis.” Rev. Mike exemplified that generosity of spirit in today’s firestorm when he came to the Center on Friday to provide sanctuary for people in need.
Fire is a double-edged sword. While we see fire’s destructive force, it’s played a pivotal role in our evolution as human beings.
In Smithsonian Magazine’s article, “Why Fire Makes Us Human,” Jerry Adler writes: “Wherever humans have gone in the world, they have carried with them two things, language and fire. As they traveled through tropical forests they hoarded the precious embers of old fires and sheltered them from downpours. When they settled the barren Arctic, they took with them the memory of fire, and recreated it in stoneware vessels filled with animal fat. Darwin himself considered these the two most significant achievements of humanity.
“It is, of course, impossible to imagine a human society that does not have language, but—given the right climate and an adequacy of raw wild food—could there be a primitive tribe that survives without cooking?
“In fact, no such people have ever been found. Nor will they be, according to a provocative theory by Harvard biologist Richard Wrangham, who believes that fire is needed to fuel the organ that makes possible all the other products of culture, language included: the human brain.”
“Wrangham also believes that human beings evolved to eat cooked food, which provided more energy than raw foods, didn’t have to be chewed as long and as vigorously, and thus freed up time for other activities, including development of the intellect. Fire provided other benefits...heat and light for living spaces, sanitization of food, and more.
Fire is incredibly powerful and useful, but can be deadly and destructive as well. Uncontained fire throughout human history has destroyed whole cities.
Rome in Nero’s time comes to mind, as does the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, which leveled that city. In America a number of other fires, caused by everything from candles and electrical sparks to meteor showers and lightning have devastated towns and killed thousands. Often dry conditions and high winds fuel the flames, just as they do here.
Yet we can still be grateful. We have evolved from those primitive humanoids living in caves to who we are today, and fire has been pivotal. And gratitude can be calming, boosting our mitochondrial enzymes, and healthy for our mind, body and spirit. We can ask ourselves: what am I personally grateful for today? For me, it’s knowing that our first responders are on the job, protecting me from the fire’s expansion.
As Ernest Holmes says, “Gratitude is one of chief graces of human existence and is crowned in heaven with a consciousness of unity.” He also says, “Today I expect and accept every good thing that comes to me, for I know Divine Abundance is manifesting in all my affairs. I give thanks for the good that is forever flowing into my life.”
And so it is.
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