Going to bed last night was a bit nerve wrecking but waking up this morning felt extra special.
You see yesterday started out as any other day. Me feeling possibility abound. Dropping the children off at school. At work going through the day with my Assistant. When my phone rang. My personal phone which I happened to have in my hand. Something I hardly ever do. And it was my husband calling me to tell me our house was on fire but everything was under control.
I had to hold the telephone away from my ear as everything in my office started spinning. My hands shaking. Did my husband just tell me our house was on fire? Fire. I could not comprehend what he was telling me. Surely not us. How could our house be on fire I thought? He told me he was at the house and everything w as contained so I didn’t have to panic nor did I need to come home. But my instincts were telling me to go home. To see what was happening.
So I told my Assistant I had to go. Rushed out of the office. As I was driving home I could smell burning in the air from at least a couple of miles away. My heart pounding then. My body in a cold sweat. All I could think about was little Mysty being dead. Suffocated from the smoke and how would I ever be able to tell my daughter her rabbit had been killed in a fire. I pushed the pedal to the floor and drove as quickly as I could. Trying to get home as fast as I could.
As I got to the main road to my house, the road was blocked by a police car. Panic set in even more. Why was the road blocked off by a police car if everything was under control? The smell of the burning even greater. My nerves on edge. I told the policeman it was my house on fire could I please get in. He moved forward and I turned into our road only to find two huge fire trucks blocking the road. The smell of burning that much more acrid. Taking my breath away. I felt like I was in a dream. Like I was having an out of body experience.
I left the car in the middle of the road and ran to my house. In 4 in heels no less. Got to the yard and there were firemen everywhere. A police woman talking to my husband. And thick black smoke billowing out of what looked like everywhere. Not a scene I was expecting to see at all. So I broke down as I got near the steps. My whole body giving in to the unexpected scene I came home to. I started shaking and crying. The police woman holding me. My husband hugging me when she moved away.
I said I had to get Mysty out. Thick smoke was billowing toward her cage. I feared I would find a suffocated little rabbit. The fireman came with me to her house. I called and called her name but she did not come. Panic really setting in then. I climbed into her house and found her crouched in the corner. Shaking but fine. She wouldn’t move when I called. Didn’t move when I walked closer to her. She was so terrified she was glued to the spot. I pulled her out and held her close to me. So relieved to find her okay. I took her into the house and sat with her a while to calm her little racing heart. Happy she was okay.
I went back out to survey the damage. Relieved the flames were out. Smoke clearing. Our shed that held all of my grateful journal for the last 20 years, Christmas decorations I had had for 20 years, Christmas decorations the children had made in school, photos, the children’s bikes, my husband’s segway and more personal belongings all gone in that instant. History that had been kept as mementos now stripped away. As if the Universe was telling me that part of my past was over in a physical sense, it was time to move on. I was heartbroken that my past had been stripped from me. Heartbroken that my children’s Christmas decorations they had ever made were gone.
But then once I talked to the firemen and they told us had it been five minutes more we would have lost our house, losing those possessions became minor. They got there just in time to catch the fire as it was spreading to the eaves of our home. Had the flames hit the eaves, the fire would have gone to the roof and they would have had to take off the roof. Our home done.
I later discovered that my neighbor was late going to work and it was she who had raised the alarm. Had she been early our home could have been gone. There were so many intervening angels who helped to save our home and our rabbit that I cannot say our grateful I am.
I picked the children up from school so they would not come home to see the burnt out trees, the shed that no longer existed, and the devastation of fire. My son’s bike he had saved up for gone. When I told them, my son said all day long at school he felt like something was wrong. My daughter panicking about Mysty.
When we got home to see the charred trees, the ashes of what remained of our shed, the burst window where the flames were so close to claiming our home, we were all so grateful for being spared. So grateful for the higher power who sent the fire while we were all out of the house and during the day when it could be discovered rather than at night when we were all sleeping and could have been taken.
As my husband went through the rubble left, he pulled out my Christmas angel burnt but still intact, sitting as if she had been guarding us during the fire. But when he held her up for me to see, she crumbled in his hand as if to say my job is done. As if she was letting us know she had protected us for as long as she could but now her job was done and she was no longer necessary. Sending chills down my spine.
Yes we lost memories that can never be replaced. My son lost his first major purchase. But what we did not lose was each other. Nor did we lose our home. So we are all still shaken by how close we came to a catastrophe but at the same time we are feeling truly blessed and grateful that we are all still here as is our home.
And I am also grateful to know I was shown first hand yesterday how quickly life can change. How each moment we have on this Earth in our present state is a blessing and should not be taken for granted. Because just like how I started the day yesterday thinking all was well. Within an hour I had almost lost it all. But I was spared and so was my family and our home. Now we know we have more work to do here in this physical plane. We were spared for a reason. And it’s time to really start living in the here and now.
And for the blessing of the fire for teaching me to focus on the here and now, I am truly grateful.
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