San Diego Fires

This post is to let you know that we are well and that we are at home. We have not had to evacuate, as I did in the Cedar Fire of 2003. We are just a few miles from an evacuation center, so we should be ok here.

Monday and Tuesday were very scary as the fire moved erratically around the county. Wednesday brought the feeling of less immediate danger, but also the knowledge that there were no roads open leading out of the county; being trapped has it own dilemmas. The way out is open today, but we are still better off staying put. Fires came within about 16 miles to the north and south of us.

It is a hard time to be in SD. So many have lost so much. More people still do not know what the status of their homes are. The air is horrible.

My mother express mailed us particulate masks, which can no longer be found in local stores. That is a good thing to do if you have other friends here. San Diego Food Bank will also need donations to get through the holidays.

Just to clear-up any confusion . . . It took until Wednesday to get the military helicopters, stationed in SD, to help douse the fires. Most of the hard work of saving the city was done on Tuesday. And I wonder what the evacuation center at the stadium might have looked like if more of the evacuees had been Hispanic or African American (which they would have if the southern fires had moved northwest), instead of the wealthy Anglos from Rancho Bernardo? (and you do have to be upper class to own a home there) Hmm, something to consider--perhaps we should not be so quick to compare this evacuation to Katrina. Nonetheless the local emergency responses have seen to have done a much better job caring for people than in 2003. We might say this truly was a "heck of a job," long before the state or the federal support was involved. Hopefully it will continue that way.

Keeping it real,

Summer Plans

Hi friends!

Just a note to let you know what I am up to now. Last week I was accepted into a CPE (Clinical Pastoral Education) Program through the Center for Urban Ministry. So, I'll be doing my unit of CPE this summer! It sounds like I will be working with the homeless and/or transitioning homeless this summer. I am excited! It is a ten week, full time plus program--so I'll be busy, but I think it will be good.

Be Well!

Karen's Birthday Poem

on seas of sacred tears

The coyotes are howling
As the moon grows
Slowly back to full.

Seminarians, too,
Hurry back
From home to
School, finals looming on the horizon.

Dark sky
White chunk
Of moon spiraled
by twinkling stars . . .


Why does all creation
Seem to do this
Crazy dance?

Back and forth,
Round and round,
Over mountains,
Across deserts . . .

It is as if we are
Driven, no, made
no, created to do so
By a power far beyond ourselves--

--we cannot stop it.
It is our DNA,
To be ourselves,
We cannot out run
A circle, or a double helix.


Tonight there was a ritual
in the dorm.
Sacredness
Of space, and time, and friendship

To celebrate all,
But especially you.
Especially life.

And the Spirit
That forever binds
Us, one to another.

(c) 2007 Kelli Parrish Lucas