Possessions

So, our bodies have moved to the new town, but our possessions are still in the old one. There have been a lot of wildfires in Texas lately, in case you hadn’t heard. Driving up here last week, we could see smoke somewhere nearby almost the whole trip. Acres and acres have burned south of Austin. More acres, although not quite as many, have burned up here. Walking outside and smelling smoke is not something I enjoy.


When I was little, I was terrified of earthquakes. I was a girl scout and one year we had the theme, “Don’t be scared, be prepared.” We had that theme because there was supposed to be a huge earthquake that year. I had nightmares about the earth opening up in huge cracks and me falling in. We had earthquake drills at school where we climbed under our desks and covered our heads. Then, I actually felt a small earthquake and realized it wasn’t any stronger a shaking than a cotton truck driving on the highway in front of our house. I could handle that (even though I know they can come stronger, I wasn’t scared of them anymore).

Then, tornadoes took the place of the scariest thing. I have had nightmares about that for years and years. And I’ll probably always be scared of those.

But wildfires are different. In some ways they’re scarier than a tornado because they can destroy more and in several different ways, not to mention last longer. In other ways they’re less scary because you can see them coming and it’s easier to get at least yourself away from them. They’ve been evacuating people for over a week now and the news shows them looking at the flames eating up their homes as they stand by their pickup trucks full of stuff they were able to grab before they had to leave.

It got me to thinking: if I were told to evacuate my home and had time to grab a few things, what would I grab? I know they’re just possessions, but a lot of them have special meaning. What would you grab out of all the things in your home if you could only take as much as you could get out in the next hour? I’m honestly still not sure what all I’d take. I hope I never have to decide.