Tag: wildfires

The House Is On Fire

Jerked awake with the fire alarm blaring. You tumble out of bed, grab your family, your pets, and head for the nearest exit. You escape the fire with your loved ones, then you call the fire department and hope they can save your house. That’s what you’re supposed to do, right? What if instead you and your family are running from the fire and you stop with the door insight, but you all start arguing with each other on what started the fire. Was it an electrical short, did someone leave a candle burning, was the stove left on, and your family begins to accuse each other of starting the fire while you’re still inside the burning house? Instead of escaping with your lives, you stay inside the fire and fight about whose fault the fire is instead of escaping.

You’re probably reading this and thinking, “Who would do that? No one would do that?”

Australia is on fire, literally(https://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/australia-fires-deadly-wildfire-photos-2019-2020/). This is after California was on fire (https://www.nbcnews.com/news/california-wildfires). The Amazon was on fire (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_Amazon_rainforest_wildfires). Our house is on fire and we’re arguing whose caused the fire. We’re so busy pointing fingers and shouting at each other that it’s your fault, their fault, that we aren’t putting out the fire and saving as many lives as we can. Priorities, my fellow earthlings, priorities. Let’s put out the fires, lets figure out how to save the polar bears as the ice melts, lets save the bees and all the other insects. They’re food for birds as well as the major pollinators for our food crops. If we lose our insects, we are next, for so many reasons. But I’m not here to be all doom and gloom, I’m here to share some hope. We can do this. We can put out the fires both real and metaphorical. We can turn around or come up with new solutions for what’s happening to our planet, our home. I don’t believe that we have these great big brains for nothing, or that we have compassionate hearts for no purpose.

I’d planned on writing this blog last night, because the Australian government didn’t seem to be supporting their rural firefighters or rescuing the animals trapped in the fires. This morning the Prime Minister of Australia has promised two billion to support fire relief efforts (https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/australia-commits-billions-dollars-wildfire-recovery-n1111021), so I thought I would skip this blog where I was going to list charities to send your money and mine to today, and then I realized that money promised isn’t money in the pockets of charities today. It’s a promise and eventually they will get the money, but no government gives out that kind of cash quickly. They want to be sure it goes to the right place, or where they think is the right place. The charities will have to jump through some bureaucratic hoops to get some of the funds, that’s just the way it works, so … here’s a list of charities. If you give a dollar today it will get to them quicker than the billions promised. If everyone who reads this blog gives a dollar, or five dollars, or whatever they can afford it will help.

See, there’s the hope to share. We can help each other. We can grab each other by the hand even if we are thousands of miles away and give hope and real help to each other. Give a dollar, send the donations that people are asking for, we are not helpless in the face of all this, if we work together to save each other and the other riders on this big, beautiful planet.

If we stop arguing about how we got here and start working to come up with solutions, we can all get out of the fire, and we can save our home, this planet at the same time.

These are Charites related to the fire that have been vetted by news sources, (CBS affiliated News) and the links are reputable.

These are vetted links to the fire fighters

https://www.rfs.nsw.gov.au/volunteer/support-your-local-brigade

https://www.cfa.vic.gov.au/about/supporting-cfa

https://cfsfoundation.org.au/donate

https://www.rfbaq.org/donate-to-rfbaq

Charities helping General

https://au.gofundme.com/f/fire-relief-fund-for-first-nations-communities

https://www.redcross.org.au/campaigns/disaster-relief-and-recovery-donate#donate

https://www.communityenterprisefoundation.com.au/make-a-donation/bushfire-disaster-appeal/

https://donate.vinnies.org.au/appeals-nsw/vinnies-nsw-bushfire-appeal-nsw

https://frrr.org.au/cb_pages/supporting_bushfire-affected_communities.php

https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/australian-wildfire-relief-fund/?rf=pr

Animal Charites

https://www.rspcansw.org.au/bushfire-appeal/

https://donate.wwf.org.au/donate/2019-trees-appeal-koala-crisis#gs.qwx2wb

https://donate.zoo.org.au/donation

https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-thirsty-koalas-devastated-by-recent-fires

https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-save-kangaroo-islands-koalas-and-wildlife

https://www.wires.org.au/donate/ways-to-help

Praying in Time


 

 

I went to a Christian college because it was the only college close enough to home for me to stay at home and take care of my grandmother.  Dr. Martin was head of the history and political science program and he was a man of strong faith.  I no longer remember what tragedy had happened, there were a lot of them when I was younger, but it was over and done with and I was in his office crying.  He said, “Let’s pray.”  I said, “But its over, you can’t pray for help when its over.”

His reply was this, that God and the angels are not trapped in time the same way that people are.  God does not live time in a linear fashion like a straight line.  God is everywhere all at once, so we could bow our heads and pray for help about something that had already happened.  
I am no longer Christian, I have been happily Wiccan for twenty years, but that moment of comfort, that thought that God, Goddess, Allah, Buddha, whatever name you use for your Deity is not trapped in time, but can move back and forth in a way that we cannot, I still believe that.  So let us pray.  Let us pray for the people, animals and land impacted by hurricane Harvey. Let us pray for all the people and animals suffering through the wild fires in the Western United States.  Let us pray for all those effected by the earthquake in Mexico.  Let us pray for those injured in the bombing in London.  Let us pray for all the countries and islands devastated by hurricane Irma.  Let us pray that help comes to those in need, not just for the electricity, the medical care, the food, clean water, clean clothing, sanitation, and all the rest that the survivors need to be well, but that our prayers reach them before each disaster, and during.  That the angels protect and keep them, that hope and comfort are there for everyone in that moment of fear.  That God and Goddess reach out to all that have been effected, even those that are not directly impacted, but lost in the overwhelming confusion of how to help.  Let us ask for guidance on where best to spend our time, our money, our goodwill to do the most good.  Let us send back in time prayers of hope and comfort, and let us pray forward that our world grows wise and better prepared.  Let us pray for the now, and find ways to give hope and comfort, and real aid to those who have been touched by all the horrible things that have happened recently.  If you can give money, then find a charity and donate.  If you don’t have extra cash wait until they have places that are needing donations of old clothes, and household items that will get to the survivors, or help those closer to home with donations of things that you no longer need or want.  If you can’t help those impacted by the hurricanes and the earthquake directly, then please find other people in need to help.  I believe if we all do what we can, even if it is simply to be kinder to the people we meet every day that we can take care of each other.  God doesn’t always come with angels and a heavenly light show, sometimes He comes in the shape of another person who offers a helping hand when we need it most.  Let us pray and then let us do something good.