Facing the Big Questions

This past weekend was also an interesting one for me personally.  Do you remember your first experience with a fire?  I mean, not like a bonfire or a fire going in a fireplace.  No, I mean, when something is burning that should not be burning. 

For me, I hearken back to an experience in the middle of winter growing up, when our chimney caught fire.  My dad, in his "macho" state refused to call the Fire Department.  He successfully extinguished the fire, but only after we ran around finding the pets and important things in case we needed to get out of the house.  That was an emotional and frightening experience.  But it taught me at an early age of what really matters in an important sense.  We always talk about how material things don't matter, but you never fully realize this until you face that "abyss" of trial. 

I think learning this early on certainly helped me in my moment of fears over the weekend, as our oven caught fire.  Now, I did not panic, I simply went around opening windows and trying to work on ventilation to get the smoke out.  Another friend ended up using a fire extinguisher.  It was an accident in the oven, and it might well have ended up going out as it was contained in the oven.  However, the size of the flames and the amount of smoke billowing from the oven did not make me want to see if the fire would go out on its own. 

The true trauma of this experience, however, did not emerge until after the fire was extinguished.  I did not think too much of this, I was just thankful it didn't spread and that everyone who was here was just fine.  But I was wrong.  My experience with a fire in my past, was not the same as that of my partner.  Allison had never experienced a fire, and this experience made her go through the swath of emotions associated with that "abyss" that I talked about.  So, I got to use my experience as a way to help console my wife.  She is doing better, but as you can understand, the first time one experiences something like this, you are forced to deal with all of those big questions.

Anyway, this is how April ended, with a lot of flames.  Ironically, May started with some flakes.  Go figure, light snow showers on our drive to church on Sunday, May Day.  If there is any positive to this, we will be making a return to the homeland, "God's Country," as I like to call it (mocking my Midwest friends and family) in a couple weeks.  We are certainly looking forward to seeing loved ones, terrain that has differences in topography (more like, elevation and mountains), and salt water. 

Here's hoping for a less eventful week, and that maintenance is able to help us out with our oven this week.  Until then, we won't be using it as there is fire extinguisher extract all over it. 

Have a great week!