There is so much for which to be grateful. The sweet and comforting scent of crushed lavender wafts all around me as I stand in my garden on this glorious October morning, surveying the wreckage and devastation wrought by a four alarm fire that began in the wee hours at the building next door.  The heady scent offered by the trampled bush, a casualty of strategies to extinguish the blaze, is a poignant reminder of the contradictions of life... crushed and broken, yet filled with vitality. 

The structure, an emergency food bank, is in ruins, its charred and skeletal remains pinched and meager in the morning light. The new brownstone homes behind us with their shattered windows and blistered paint, remind me of pictures I have seen of war zones after repeated shelling.  Splintered fences, sacrificed in the heroic efforts of fighting the blaze, are silent witnesses of the rampant destruction wrought by Brother Fire.  I search for the familiar presence of Macaroni and Cheese, the orange tabby cats who reside at the food bank. Each morning from their perch on our shared fence they tease my dog, Buddy.  This morning they are absent and I hope that somehow they survived the raging inferno.

As I brush away some of the charred rubble that covers the whole yard and bend to lament the apparent destruction of my favorite climbing heritage rose, the scent of lavender once again fills the air around me with promise and hope.  There is so much for which to be grateful. 

Despite the ferocity and suddenness of the fire, not a single human life was lost. Neighbors, previously unacquainted, ran from door to door to alert others while informal attendance was taken to make sure all were accounted for as we huddled across the street in the chilly darkness to witness the surreal scene unfolding before us.  The response of the fire department was swift, with over 100 firefighters and support personnel responding within minutes of the 911 call. The training, skill and efficiency of these urban warriors were evident as ladders, hoses and strategies were deployed in tandem.  Volunteers from the Red Cross, roused from their slumbers by the emergency, offered blankets, bottled water and solace.  A stranger, returning to his car from a local nightclub, arrived to find that he wouldn't be able leave until the blaze was extinguished.  Noticing that I had fled the house barefoot and in only my pajamas, he offered his jacket to me.  Miraculously, our own home, a few feet away from the ruined building, remains intact, untouched by the fire. 

There is also much to mourn.  The food bank, which monthly serves hundreds of economically fragile, hungry people, is gone.  I think about the faces of the people in the lines that form each day in front of my home and I wonder what they will eat today and tomorrow and the next day?  I think of Eileen, the executive director of the food bank, with her boundless compassion for those she serves, and I wonder how she will lead her staff and volunteers through this devastating loss?  I consider the four foot well of muddy, sooty water that has collected in the space housing the steps to our basement and realize with sadness, that mementos, pictures, and Christmas decorations representing a lifetime of personal memories were stored there and that little will be salvageable.  

I step away from the battered rosebush to search through the mud and rubble for my garden clippers, hoping that a timely, careful pruning will enable it to recover from being trampled as once again the perfume of crushed lavender fills the air.  I breathe in the comforting, healing scent and I am renewed, remembering that life continues, even if it appears in a new form.  In this blessed moment I promise myself that when I find the clippers I will also cut and dry some of the lavender as a reminder that there is so much for which to be grateful.   -- Margie

NEWS AND NOTES!
 Sunday, November 21, 2010
7:30 AM - Noon in Brunsman Hall
26th and K Streets, Sacramento
Drop by to support our sliding scale programs by purchasing our handcrafted greeting cards, prayer candles and other items or to talk with Lew or Margie about Spiritual Direction.