11:30 last Thursday night the doorbell rang waking us from a sound sleep. The West Kelowna fire had jumped the Okanagan lake and was burning up toward our home here on the east side of the lake. We were told we had 15 minutes to evacuate.
Fortunately, there had been a fire nearby several months earlier and we had put together an evacuation list so all we needed to do was grab what was on the list and go... which we did.
So, we've been out of our home for 4 days now, staying at a friends place nearby that is safe. (Our home is still standing and the fire has quieted down, but we probably won't get back in for another 2 days to a week according to the emergency services people we've talked to.) And we've been doing just great, both food wise and emotionally.
Join us to hear more:
Food wise we want to stay WFPB and SOS-free, of course. And this has been pretty easy with the variety of choices at the health food stores these days. There's an oil-free hummus we like that we have on Corn Thins with avocado, tomato and lettuce. Or we just dip the Corn Thins into the hummus like a chip and eat it that way along with veggie sticks of carrot, celery and cucumber. So simple.
And dealing with the potential loss of our home emotionally has been interesting too. We've been quite calm through the whole experience and at one point early on, we even had a bit of a laugh about how, if it did burn down, we'd be free. It's amazing, isn't it, how we can view almost any situation from a positive point of view or negative. And that how we view it determines how we feel. If we're afraid what's happening is a bad thing, we tend to resist it and tighten in fear. And if we see new possibilities in what's happening, we feel open, light and excited about the future. How fascinating that the same situation can produce such a different emotional experience based solely on how we think about it.
What we've seen in this situation is how, when we focus in close on the event, it can look like there could be a great loss in our lives, and that's scary. But when we're able to expand our view of the situation, seeing that, in the bigger picture, everything that happens is for our and everyone's greatest benefit, the thoughts that come into our minds are of possibility and not loss--new horizons, not sadness, uncertainty and confusion. Again, these situations can show us so much about how our experience of any event is a reflection of our thinking about it. How we view the situation determines our experience and not the situation itself.
In the bigger picture, it seems like Life is going on in infinite new ways all the time. It shows up in our personal lives and in everything all around us. For us, it looks like Life is living us and the best way to dance through life is to dance with the music it's playing at the time instead of trying to control what's happening. Whenever I have the idea that life shouldn't be the way it, I'm hearing my mind's talk and not the music of life.
All through this experience, it's been so clear that Life has our back. We've had 5 people offer us a place to stay. We've had numerous friends and family get in touch ready to help in any way they can. It really is hard for us to see it any other way than that what is happening is for our greatest good and we'll come out the other side just fine. We are so blessed. And not just the two of us. We are all blessed with unbelievable support. But we have to be willing to open to see it and not blind ourselves by resisting what is occurring. From openness we have access to our greatest potential to deal with whatever happens.
To Your Amazing Health
Bill and Connie
No recipe today being out of our home. Recipes will resume next week.