Today we bear witness to the best we can be

Why does it take a crisis to bring people together? To remind us there is more that binds us than divides us? We routinely see this sense of community in regional towns, in CFA brigades, in our national cricket teams but this unity, this shared experience is different. The size of this calamity is unprecedented. An Emergency Management commander stationed at the relief centre where I am serving as a Red Cross Volunteer Field Psychologist said Australia has not experienced this degree of destruction and disruption since World War Two.

A local resident was emphatic with me last night. There was no “bushfire” as such. The flames that engulfed Mallacoota and over a million hectares in Victoria alone were a veritable firestorm.

The Eastern state crisis was significant enough to have caught the attention of Golden Globe recipients, musicians and movie stars across the world and for Shane Warne to decide to part with his beloved baggy green cap at auction. A comedian I did not know decided to be a doer not a talker. Her campaign has raised over $49M. Bravo Celeste Barber.

Pink has donated half a million, the Hemsworths a million. Generous for sure. But closer to home for Thor who calls Byron Bay home. For the most tragic of reasons, we’ve attracted the attention of the global village. But what moved me to write?

On Wednesday I witnessed the most poignant, local and personal reactions to this tragedy that came without fanfare, with no strings attached, manifested with abject humility and pure empathy and humanity.

The wait staff at the cafe I bought the coffee to accompany my long drive to Sale who wrote a scratch sign indicating they were donating 100% of their tips to bushfire charities.

The young P plate driver with a car so full of suitcases of donated goods they obscured his view driving along the M1. I know. I was behind him.

The waiter in the trendy cafe where I had lunch who said when he wasn’t on shift this past week he volunteered to rope and deliver hay bales to local farmers and was promoted to logistics coordinator due to his "waiter's" powers of observation and retentive memory. He told me it was the most meaningful thing he has ever done.

The fireys alighting from a plane at the RAAF base looking weary and happy to be home...until they’re called up again.

The Air Force fighter pilot training instructor who was happy to chaperone me around base... because in times like this you just do what needs to be done.

The women who continue to show up for Red Cross shifts despite the fact that their own properties were in peril a week ago and they (can now) return home each night to a property without power or the creature comforts the rest of us take for granted.

The big burly tradie who sat with me, his voice cracking as he recalled the moment last week when cockatoos simply fell from the sky.

There are many ugly truths in this modern world. We can’t escape the seedy underbelly of human nature, the vitriol of anonymous slander, the seduction of blame culture, particularly but not exclusively in times of grief, the anxiety and depression spreading figuratively like wildfire through our youth; defying the reality of the security and quality of life many enjoy.

If I could have one wish today as we brace again for the euphemism we now call an "extreme weather event", it would be to bottle the mystical magic of the love, kindness, courage and generosity of spirit that has overflowed in our country the last few weeks; that what we have witnessed in the rediscovery of the best of our collective selves could hold us to account forever more and imbue everyone and especially our youth with hope and optimism; serving as a call to compassion embodied in all Australians long after the last fierce summer ember has been extinguished and the rest of us start to moan about the cold while communities embark on the long and arduous process of recovering and rebuilding.

Leanne Faraday-Brash is an organisational psychologist, coach and media commentator. She is Principal of Brash Consulting, a Melbourne-based practice specialising in organisational psychology, organisation development and "workplace justice" (Equal Opportunity, ethics and employee relations).

Outside work, Leanne volunteers with the Disaster Response Network of the Australian Psychological Society in partnership with the Australian Red Cross. Leanne can be reached at www.brashconsulting.com.au