What is Most Essential?
What would you take with you if you had just minutes to leave your house because of approaching fires?
The last two Octobers, this has been an immediate question for tens of thousands of people in northern California where I live.
And although fortunately our home was never in actual danger, there was one afternoon in the midst of major fires when we thought it might be.
Sonoma Mountain on a clear fall day
My husband and I were driving out of our neighborhood to go to a play, when we saw a huge cloud of smoke just behind nearby Sonoma Mountain. We turned around and drove back to the edge of our neighborhood, which is right at the city limits next to agricultural fields.
We joined the crowd of our neighbors standing at the edge of the field, watching the smoke. We all wondered aloud whether the fire would come over the mountain, across the fields, and into our neighborhood.
Just then a text from our local emergency network came through saying that the fire was still far enough away that we shouldn’t be in danger, but to be on alert and prepared to evacuate in case that changed.
My husband and I talked it over, and decided to still go to the play. But first we went back home and packed up our car with the things we had already planned to take with us if we needed to evacuate. Things like an overnight bag with clothes and toiletries, some financial papers, family photos, a special painting from our wedding, and - our daughter’s request - her Harry Potter books signed by JK Rowling.
We were very fortunate because we never did officially need to evacuate, and we didn’t lose our home like so many did in the fires.
But it did push us to think about what is most essential. And now that we are back in “fire season,” I have been thinking again about what is most essential.
What is most essential for you? Not just material things, but also relationships, activities, goals. What fills your heart with joy? What feels connected to your deepest values and purpose?
As we get further into the fall season, and the trees are so showing us so beautifully how to let go, what can you identify that is essential and you want to carry with you into the next year, and what are you ready to let go?
Send an email to liz@happybrainlife.com and tell me - what is most essential in your life?
Have a beautiful day!
Hugs,
Liz
