Wildfires

My heart goes out to everyone affected by the wildfires. While they are a natural part of the ecological process they are still heartbreaking to experience.
I try to take comfort in thinking that fires are a healthy part of nature, but it doesn’t really help. But that is what I’m meditating on.

Over many centuries the native peoples of California learned to live with fire. They would intentionally burn areas in order to attract deer to the shoots that would sprout up afterwards.

The wildfires make me reflect on how we are impacting Earth. They are a check-in-with-Earth time. Are we really living the way we’re supposed to be? Is Earth happier with European people’s coming here over the past couple hundred years?

When I first came to California I lost basically everything I owned except my violin and a blanket which I used to sleep outside. California is a really crazy place in many ways and not easy to have roots in. Millionaires can come in plop down a lot of money for luxurious places, but is that really connected?

Sometimes when I’m up hiking in the hills and looking back at the city’s skyline in the distance, I don’t feel a sense of marvel nor fascination at that skyline, but rather a sad feeling. I know what the impacts of the existence of that skyline are on the ecology of the region. I also know what they are on society.

Maybe as long as there are two different types of progress there will always be unhappiness.

Here is some music I will share. I recently discovered and started studying this piece written by the Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach in one of my music books. His godfather was Telemann and you can hear a strong lyric quality in this work which reminds me a lot of Telemann’s music. There is an ephemeral, bittersweet note in this work that makes me yearn back towards a different time on Earth.