We will get through this: TOGETHER

"We'll get through this the same way we get through everything: together."

That's what my wife told me yesterday, and she's right.

I was lamenting the loss of so many Oregon towns this past week: Gates, Mill City, Idanha, Detroit, Otis, Phoenix, Talent, parts of Estecada and Chiloquin, Glide, Vida, Blue River....

All gone. Wiped off the map by walls of flames. Citizens fleeing with little notice; some who didn't make it out. The fires were so wide spread, that you'd be hard pressed to find an Oregonian who DIDN'T have a direct connection to at least one of these communities.

I watched as the White Rive fire swallowed my favorite secret camp spot on the Barlow Trail. And I've spent the last two days held captive in my own home because the air outside in Bend is toxic. And they've forecast two more days of this. So, it's starting to get to me.

My wife's words rang so true. "We've lived this far, right? We'll make it through this the same way we got here: together."

So while I know my secret spot on the Barlow Trail is gone, I also know that a short walk down the trail there still flows three springs of the purest groundwater I've ever tasted; Faith, Hope and Charity. These springs were found and utilized by the original pioneers on their last leg of the Oregon Trail along the Barlow Trail. They flow year-round and were a welcomed site for those opting for the overland route to the Willamette Valley instead of the easier (and more expensive) Columbia River passage.

Faith, hope and charity are the things we must rely on now to get us through as we travel this episode of life together.

What is Faith? Faith to me is allowing calm to settle in, despite not knowing what to do. Faith makes it OK not to know. My higher power always finds a way through. I can't always see the solution, but I have Faith that the way will be made clear in time.

Hope is believing that this time of trouble is only temporary. I hold onto hope for a better day. I have HOPE that good will prevail, that together we will see each other through.

Charity is giving without expectation. Charity is sharing the gifts we have been given, so that others may begin to recover. We all know someone who is suffering. Charity is giving what we can in order to help ease someone else's suffering.

And no, taking pictures of your truck filled with water and diapers, to post on social media, as you drive into a disaster zone is NOT charity; it's PR. And I don't want to see it. It is my wish that all restoration contractors and disaster recovery folks will, instead of thinking about what they will get out of these storms, they will contemplate what will be left behind when they've gone.

As I type this, Hurricane Sally is strengething and bearing down on Gulfport. My home state is still burning. People in Iowa are only just now beginning to pick up and sift through the pieces of their lives ravaged by tornados. We are living in hard times.

I have FAITH in the good of man. I have HOPE that we will emerge as stronger, closer communities. And I will provide as much CHARITY as I can afford. If we all do this, TOGETHER, we will get through this.

https://mailchi.mp/claimsdelegates.com/total-loss-fires