In my travels through the wild country, as I look closely at the detail of the land, the sign of fire is everywhere; charcoal at the bases of ancient rock formations, newer black still low on the bark of century-old pines. It has been here before: fire is not new to the wilderness.
The world of men is a world of clocks, and pages marked with days, but the century until the shade of hundred foot pines again cools the earth of this fire-blackened land is but a blink in nature’s world, forty thousand sunrises in a world of millions of millions.
Even now, while the flames still flicker and the smoke still covers the sun, the promise of new can already be seen as I gaze across the miles. And the rain speaks to those who can hear: “It’ll be all right”.
(Photos are of the Chippy Creek fire which was born on July 31, 2007 in the Cabinet Mountains of Western Montana.)
