House on Fire

~ Live & Learn

Photo: Wildlife rescuer Simon Adamczyk carries a koala out of a burning forest to safety on Kangaroo Island, southwest of Adelaide, Australia, on January 7, 2020. Photograph by David Mariuz.

The Atlantic: Animals Rescued From Australia’s Bushfires. January 9, 2020:

“The horrific wildfires that have been burning across Australia for months now have taken a severe toll on the animals that called the scorched lands home. Estimates of the number of animals killed by the fires range from hundreds of millions to more than 1 billion. Volunteers and crews from Australia’s National Parks and Wildlife Service have been doing what they can to help some of the kangaroos, koalas, lizards, and birds that can be rescued and treated. Ranchers and pet owners have been working to keep the animals in their care secure when possible, but many farm animals have been killed as well. As much as one-third of Australia’s Kangaroo Island has burned so far, with wildlife experts fearing that more than half of the island’s 50,000 koalas have been killed.”

35 thoughts on “House on Fire”

  2. My aunt and cousin and his wife have been evacuated from their home. Her emails and pictures paint a horrific picture. One of the saddest was a detailed description of what to do to try and save your life if you were trapped and couldn’t evacuate. Just reading the instructions was terrifying. I cannot fathom actually being there.

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  3. I can’t ‘like’ this post because it is all so horrific. I simply can’t. I can ‘like’ that you have posted it to bring awareness and support. My like is my voice joining yours and everyone else’s and is given to ease my sense of feeling helpless.

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  5. How could I possibly ‘like’ this? No way…. I’ve also read that up to 90% of the koala population is now eradicated. And then the people who lost home and income, family members and pets/working animals etc.? It’s beyond our imagination and we don’t know how to be of any use to those brave, courageous people. I’m sick to my stomac just thinking of that poor people, land, and its habitants.

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  10. I have seen such beautiful love, connection and support arising in communities all over Australia from these fires. 💕 If we all truly understood that when Mother Nature or life rips our lives apart, or takes us from all that we have known, it’s simply to wake us up and move us in a new direction and into a better way of living, as tragic and as difficult as that is at the time. If we truly understood that each of our decisions and thoughts collectively, affect the way Mother Earth moves and behaves in this world, we would all listen more deeply to ourselves and instead of feeling overwhelmed by it all, look at how we can do our part and from this place, life will open up to more love, more courage, more hope to renew and rejuvenate and that together we can always create a new beginning. 🌈

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      1. It’s raining here in Queensland as I send this, its so good to hear and see the rain again on this dry land. And I just wanted to share with you, this special post from a girl that is actually in the fire zone. It’s just so wise and beautifully encouraging.!!

        “I walked across our land that had burned, a charred landscape met my eyes. I had mentally prepared myself before I went there, hearing many stories of the devastation and loss.
        As I walked the land I was amazed at the resilience I felt from the land. I know in some areas the fire burned much worse than here, but the erratic, random and wild nature of the fire meant that spots in between the burned places were left untouched, certain trees spared, enough life left in between to ignite new growth in the future. The well trodden animal tracks, un-burned little highways from one green patch to the next. I had a deep sense that some of these trees had seen this before, stood resilient in the flames many times. This tree still stands. It’s ancient this one, maybe 1500 years old. I felt her clarity as I leaned against her trunk and felt held by her knowing that all is as it should be. Fire is medicine and behind the chaos, loss and devastation felt now in the immediate after shock, this medicine will bring the necessary healing and balance that is required. Life force is the strongest force on earth and it finds the way forward through Mother Earth’s language of the elements. We need to trust her in her ways. She knows the path of healing! She is life!” Anki Groening

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  15. I feel absolutely heartsick when I see and hear the reports from Australia. Have dear friends in Wollongong whose children are in a danger zone…all very frightening. And the loss of animal life just guts me….

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  18. Yesterday, I was reading more about the fires while the tears keep flowing…at some point in the past 3 weeks I mentioned in a comment on your offering about being upset about the fires and loss of the animals and at the point crying as well…Such an unbelievable loss…conservative est. 1 Billion and some possible extinction within the species of birds, mammals and reptiles…some of the fires were caused by arson…which brought me to a few years back and the grief and outrage I had over a fire that hit Home, a place I visited almost weekly …an area that was Multi-Generational to Our Family…and I think about stopping on one of the last walks through there, chatting with a family from Minnesota and they were debating if they should take the trail…I convinced them that they should…I told them it was a Once in a Lifetime Experience that They Will Treasure Forever…and later that Summer It Was Destroyed by the Arson set fire, the destruction Vast….it is no longer the same though coming back…the water still flows through the Narrow Fern Lined Slot Canyon… the destruction vast…I see the destruction by Fire yearly, Silvered Standing dead Timber, Hiking trails gone.. often during the Summer & Fall WE Breath In the Ash Filled Air, that burns our Eyes. though the Sunset are Gorgeous as I think of the PRICE that was PAID .. So hard to have to Accept the Realities that Visit US, Impacting Memory, Heart and Soul…

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