When you walk through fire, I will be with you...

I will read ashes for you, if you ask me. 

I will look on the fire and tell you from the gray lashes 

And out of the red and black tongues and stripes, 

I will tell how fire comes 

And how fire runs far as the sea
.

By Carl Sandburg

Fire all throughout the Southwest--it is burning, eating and consuming every single thing in its way.

from a distance

Residents are looking back at the fire, as they drive away with just clothes and photos.

From YouTube site

Dry dry air, heavy and suffocating.  Sun scorching burnt earth, 100 degrees or more. Tinder dry vegetation, ready to burn.

Oh, God!  Please protect the firefighters!  

Oh, God! Bless families whose homes are burned to the ground!

Every summer, I post about wildfires.  Last year, we could see the flames from our house. One year at a school where I taught, ashes covered playground and swings from a fire 25 miles away.

The photos below were taken from my porch.

From my front door during the day....

Waiting on You Lord

Chris had never been known to be a “waiter”; instead he always threw himself headlong in diversified adventures…here, there, here...his pride and selfishness driving him.

Who Chris was changed radically when he became a man whose greatest desire in life was to wait upon the Lord.  Be intense, diligent… …taking on the most mundane of tasks.  Wait upon the Lord…were the words running through his mind when the alarm bell rang.

“Take it, Chris!” cried out a fellow fireman.  At the clunk sound of hose thrown to him, adrenaline surged. Gripping the heavy hose tightly, Chris reminded himself ”Time to serve!”  as he raced into the blazing house.  

sung by John Waller, scenes from "Fireproof"

These underlined words above were provided by Delores every Wednesday as challenge to  bloggers who enjoy writing flash fiction, poems, prose, vignettes... Words are now being tossed at us at 

The is a repost from May 15, 2020

Roaring to the Sea

From my front door during the day....

Listening as other smoke-grimed firefighters, Jen was struck with sheer immensity of this wildfire. 

From my front door at dusk...

Grim revelations of how many other sites weighed heavily on them all, but for Jen, this was her first fire.

They hacked and climbed through brush, always watching the indigo smoke billow in the sky.  Her team all knew that somewhere, a sparrow-sized flicker of flame had burst into this monster.

From my front door at night....

The searing conflagration roared toward the sea in a rapture of destruction and devastation.  

Over the hill where the fires sweep...

Jen shoveled without pause.

Thanks go to Delores at Under the Porch Light for providing six challenging words each Wednesday as a challenge.  The bold underlined words above show her wide scope when it comes to words. You should check out her A to Z Challenge where each day, Delores would provide an extremely obscure word.

Please go to her site by clicking on the stream in the right sidebar.

Note:  My camera and I have not melded yet, so these photos are grainy.  Our house is safe.  Others are not.  

Today is Labor Day...

Source

Today is Labor Day, and I don’t expect bloggers to be out in huge numbers checking their blogs.  You will probably be eating potato salad, grilled stuff, and visiting with family.

This blog is to recognize all the people (or as many who flit through my brain) who will be working like they do all the time.  These people are the backbone of communities.

Farmers and all people who work the earth to supply people food.

Truck drivers and all  who move products from one place to the other.

Doctors, nurses and all people in medical professions

Parents and grandparents and anyone who cares for a child’s needs

Firemen, policemen, EMT professionals:  God bless you!

There are so many other people who dedicate their lives to helping others and who do not take the day off because it is a federal holiday, Labor Day.  I am sure you know more who could be added to this list.  Feel free to honor them as well.

Source: Fudges Bakery in UK

We are blessed to have them.