Walking in Refuge

A week ago this morning, wildfire struck our town of Ashland, and three neighboring communities in Southern Oregon. The fire started in Ashland, down the hill from us and across the road. We watched it roll like a freight train into Talent, Phoenix, and Medford, Oregon. About six hundred individual homes, one hundred small businesses, and hundreds more apartment units were destroyed.

This past weekend, the National Weather Service declared a Red Alert, and our county government declared a Stage 1 alert for our area, meaning “get ready to go, in case we issue an evacuation order.”

We decided to go camping in McCloud, CA, just south of Mt. Shasta, to get away from the fire risk.

This is our mobile refuge, in a campground on the edge of McCloud.

We walk into town Monday morning, and discover a still active tourist and logging town, filled with memories...

Partners in the past days of glory…

An old commercial wagon; this would have been a rough rider!

This contraption was part of a giant steam engine and belt drive wheel for a sawmill.

This old building was built to last… After a century of standing, it would not be easy to take down.

We’re all looking for signs of how to move in our precarious times. Engineers on this line received the signal, “Go or No Go!”

The owner of this classic van from the early 1940s obviously has a plan…

On our way out of town, we encounter two more expressions of strong emotions…

This is part of a simple memorial to those lost on 9/11…

This old fellow seems to me to be weeping at the current devastation of his state by wildfire. Will we listen to his cries?

In this season of loss, danger, and uncertainty, I wish for you love, grace, and peace. Please, whatever you do, be safe…

Thanks for joining me!

I hope you’ll join me again for my morning glimpses.  I promise to fill them with beauty and to keep the narrative blessedly short.

Until the next time…

Grace and peace to you,

Art Mills