Fire, fear and what held it all together

This summer was a whole rollercoaster ride on repeat for me! I sincerely hope it was much calmer for you.

I had promised you updates over the summer on the blog of Fleurs de Vie’s website. I was unable to keep that promise.

On the 19th of July, our village was hit by a wildfire. A few weeks before the wildfire, I had a dream of a fire, at the top of a hill. I told a friend of mine about it and forgot about it, though I did have this nagging feeling to get a go bag ready for myself and my family and to find the travel bags of our cats.

As the 19th of July came closer, that feeling grew and I almost forced my family to prepare for that kind of worst-case scenario. That Sunday afternoon when I saw those flames at the top of the hill overlooking our home, I had a sense of déjà vu but didn’t dwell on it.

The field behind our house started burning and with several neighbours, my son and I managed to put it out using garden hoses and buckets because the firemen were busy putting out the big fire that burned 200 hectares between our village and the next village. 10 houses were burned during this wildfire just in our village. When I look through my window, I can see 3 burned cypresses about 30 meters from my house. Once our family was safely evacuated to my friend’s house, she reminded me of the dream. No wonder I had that sense of urgency to prepare go bags for us.

Two days after the wildfire of our village, the wildfire of the Gros Bessillon started. I was driving home that Tuesday and I saw a huge cloud of smoke drifting towards the direction I was coming from. Which meant the fire it came from could have been in my village again. This time the fire was over 30 kilometres away from us, but the smell of smoke, falling ashes and dark smoke clouds stayed with us for several days. That fire burned 2200 hectares in the time “our” wildfire had burned one tenth of that with a total of 6300 hectares over almost one month.

It took me over 2 weeks to be able to sleep a full night again, to have a semblance of an ability to concentrate again. The fear of re-living something similar was still hanging over me though I didn’t have that feeling of urgency anymore nor did I feel unsafe in my home. A day after the Gros Bessillon fire started, the fire on the Atlantic coast of France that burned over 47000 hectares started.

Yesterday’s rain brought back the smells of the fires. I am grateful for the rain: it hadn’t rained like that since the beginning of May and that only wet about 3cms depth of our soil. We will be needing much more rain in the coming days, weeks, months to get back to proper levels of soil humidity and water table depth. Like I said, the summer felt like one rollercoaster ride after another, sometimes without a break.

I am grateful to the essences for having protected my home and my family. These are the essences I used during this time:
•  Solaris - relieves the fear and distress associated with fire, heat and sun. It contains Mulla Mulla, She Oak and Spinifex. This one was really helpful.
•  Anxiety - for anxiety, nervous habits and obsessive behaviours.
• Soapberry - stimulates the release of tension from the heart associated with a fear of nature; helps us move through fear with an open heart.
•  Crisis Remedy – for when you need to be rescued, or lifted, in times of shock, panic, anxiety, fear, agitation, illness or dread.
•  Fire Clear - releases fear problems.
• Emergency Essence - helps to soothe and create balance when you need it most.
•  Abundance Spray - alleviates self-doubt, encourages self-worth and promotes willingness to receive and participate in the flow. It is an essence of transformation of consciousness. I had a calling to use this one. I didn’t try to figure it out.