Winds and Sirens, and a Prayer for L.A.

Living several miles away, my family and I have been fortunate enough to not have been directly affected by the fires but watching the news and seeing the devastation definitely has had its effect.

Yesterday on our way out of the grocery store, we came across a man on the parking lot selling homemade churros. We bought a few and while I worked my phone to Zelle him, he made a mention of the winds that had begun to pick up. It's funny, and not in a good way, how wind scares us now. I hear sirens and my ears perk up, when I walk out of my house, I glance over at the mountains that separate us from the valley. When my dogs bark and howl and can't help but wonder if they are sensing something, helicopters wake me up at night, and I'm regularly looking out the window to check on the status of the wind. Surrounded by brush, we are very much vulnerable to fires. It's a small valley city, we still have many undeveloped parcels of land that are covered with dry brush that can as easily be found at the far end of town as they can be next to a neighborhood or business, and now that we know that fires can in fact make their way to urban areas, we can't help but have the thought in the back of our minds. HOWEVER, we are also all aware now and alert to our surroundings while also trying to live our day-to-day lives. People are doing their grocery shopping, going to work, or building a churro business. In our house, we will celebrate my son's birthday today, he turned 21 on January 7th.

Also today, he and I start catechism. I'm not very religious, but I do enjoy sitting inside a quiet church and I will do that today. For L.A.

St. Thomas Catholic Church on Pico Blvd. in Los Angeles