Material Things

It was 10:40 am, and I was driving home from a quick 15 minute errand to grab band-aids. I had missed a call from my husband, and as I was driving home towards our house, I saw the picture below and a frantic message that our back ravine was on fire.

I was one of the many San Diegans last week that was about to face one of their greatest fears - losing everything you own in a natural disaster.

As I finally made my way back close to my house, I was reunited with my husband, our dog, and several of our neighbors. In the moment, the first thing you reach for is your loved ones, and your pets. And then...you wait.

Our fire (Carlsbad Poinsettia Fire) was one of 8 in the San Diego area. Graphic fire footage here:

I happened to be at about this vantage point, and stayed there for 2 hours until we were evacuated further due to a nearby explosion. There are really no words to describe a moment like this - and what took five hours from start to finish, seemed like an eternity.

As I watched our neighborhood burn, I looked down at the clothes I was wearing, my phone and my keys. I had no time to go back into our house and grab any belongings, nor did my husband due to the rapid evacuation. The thoughts that go through your mind at a time like this are surreal...where we will sleep tonight....where will we sleep when we don't have a house...what...where...when.

You stand, you stare, you pray. You pray. 

Deep down, you know that the odds of your house surviving anything like this are zero. 

You try to breathe. You hug strangers. You stare. You see helicopters. You cheer. The fire grows. You cry.

While watching, you feel helpless and want to grab a hose, a shovel, or do anything to stop the fire. I ran back to our group of houses to see if I could do anything, but the smoke was too thick to stay. After evacuating, many of us spent five hours waiting to see what would happen to our homes, although we feared the worst. 

As someone who writes about material things, last Wednesday changed my life. In a moment, you go from surrounding yourself with those "material things,"  - and when you are faced with a complete loss of everything, your perspective shifts. All the "stuff" that we have - and stuff that I blog about myself - becomes irrelevant.

That's hard to say as someone who wants people to read about this irrelevant stuff - but it's true. While it's fun to look at artistic shoes, and other parts of fashion, it's also important to gain perspective on what is really important in our lives.

By a miracle, our house and several others were spared, although one neighbor lost his home.

When we returned to our homes later that night, an enormous sense of gratitude was before us - and many of us found the firefighters (and some neighbors who stayed) that risked their life to save our homes. No words could express our indebtedness to these men and women who were the first responders.

When asked what we could do to show them appreciation, their response was humble and heroic. They had spent the last 5 hours fighting a 1700 degree blaze - and their first instinct when they saw us return was to check on our well being and state of mind.

The rest of the first responders were equally admirably, and made sure that everyone (including cats and dogs) were out safely (great article here).

And, while you can never be fully prepared for an emergency, there are three links below that provide helpful advice to prepare:

• Emergency Checklist for San Diego
• US Government Ready.gov checklist
• First Alert Fireproof Safe

Certainly, this is one of my most somber posts, but it was something that had such a profound impact on my life that I had to share.

And while I won't swear off writing about shoes in the future, I will never forget the feeling of losing everything - and realizing what is most important in life.