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When I first joined the John Muir Association there a handsome, slender well spoken great grandson of John Muir served as well, Michael, was an impressive member. Having lived with multiple sclerosis since he was 15, he knew how dramatic its impact could be and how it could separate people from being in nature and feeling their own power. He started the nonprofit Access Adventure using the strength and motility of powerful horses to bring the disabled back into the world. He remains an inspiration to everyone that meets him, and I treasured those days he worked with us.
Yesterday I saw on facebook that his home and sanctuary in Vacaville/fairfield burned to the ground. He and his horses got to safety, but there was nothing left of the home and retreat he had built from the ground up. All the carriages and personal treasures, all the paddocks and fields, embers and ashes, I heard from a fellow board member that he is understandably devastated. I can’t imagine what it is like to lose the world you built in a moment.
The fire yesterday ravaged more and more places and people we care about. The air is heavy with smoke, ash, and bitter dreams. You can taste it even indoors There are going to be a million stories like Michael’s. The town of Vacaville, the very home that little rescued beaver lived in, burned out of control. The freeway was closed because of all the smoke, and who knows whether that beavers family even survived. Fire doesn’t play favorites. The homes of heroes burn along side the homes of villains.
Like cancer, multiple sclerosis, and even lace we get fire whether we deserve it or not.
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