Friday, June 20, 2008

The Jane in Maine…(stays away from the flame…)

Jane may as well be squinting into a burning blaze…

This may well turn into one of those 'what I did on my summer vacation' tales only, here, the summer is spring and the vacation is encapsulated into a four-day weekend. Last week, my hubby thought my eyes were crossing from too much time at the computer and suspected I had bonded rather too closely with my technology. He swore I was acting as if my brain were an expansion slot (extra memory storage) for my hard drive rather than the other way around so he decided to sweep me away to Maine with friends.

Now, I love Maine. It reminds me of Nova Scotia only different (got that?). The people are friendly, the food tasty, there's an IHOP for breakfast and an Olive Garden for supper and the shopping's not too shabby, either. I always drop into Halcyon Yarns in Bath for yarns and to the Beading Path in Freeport for beads and rumor has it that Chico's at the Maine Mall has seen me once or twice (a day). So…this was not a bad solution.

Camden, Maine

Only this excursion had a twist: one day into the trip I received a call from my friend in Halifax: my community was dead center of a huge out-of-control forest fire and everyone had been evacuated. There we were miles from home with spotty news and every media coverage showing scenes like this:

from across the lake

from a neigbour's yard

From Halifax

Imagine what that felt like. For miles and miles as we drove I thought about home and how much it meant to me, my sanctuary my creative font. What would I have taken had I received the five minute announcement my neighbour's had received? My yarn? My beads? Those two items would have required a pickup truck (or maybe an 18 wheeler) so I guess it would have been my computer (see opening paragraph). Sobering thoughts, regardless. Since we moved here 7 years ago, there's been two killer storms and a forest fire helping to remind me that sometimes the only safe sanctuary lies deep within myself. Everything changes, everthing is fleeting and vulnerable.

Still, we came home to our home still standing and embraced in a pool of peace as if a raging inferno had not burned two of our neighbour's homes to the ground and singed others. We are so enormously grateful. At one point, we learned that the fire fighters, most of who were volunteers, had their backs to homes spewing water at the flames determined to save these houses. They risked their lives. Their efforts were nothing short of heroic and we all thank our fire fighters a million times over ... thank you, thank you, thank you…

Still standing…