New Life

Our cul-de-sac is home to eleven families; two homes are reduced to ashes; severe smoke damage in a third keeps the family away. I drive more slowly these days saddened by the charred landscape. I pray more in the car.

Three and a half weeks have passed. Our lives, our friends’ lives changed forever and daily impacted by the Black Forest fire.

But besides the sad picture and the ever-present aroma of smoke, something is different. Life is different—in a good way.

Green poking through

Green is stubbornly pushing through the blackened charcoal earth. A gift causing my breath to catch each time I notice.

Determined green

All eleven of us who call Piedra Vista home are relating. E-mails fly through cyber space; we keep each other posted. Neighbors stop cars and visit more often; hugs and real emotions are entrusted. Lawnmowers are borrowed; food is shared. Get-togethers are in the works; invitations given on a new level. Several created a thank you care package for our local firefighters. 

Brownies for firefighters

Neighbors help neighbors sift. (Before the Waldo Canyon fire a year ago, I didn't know this definition of sift.)There is a new togetherness.


One neighbor landscaped for another.

We’ve always known each other by name; we haven’t always related.

I wonder where all this will lead.

I am learning to believe.

“When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flames shall not consume you.”                                            

Isaiah 43: 2

I heard laughter while neighbors sifted.