The fires presently consuming central Texas have naturally been on my mind the past 48 hours.

Personally, I’m fine. My home and family are not in any direct danger from the major fires occurring in the area. There are lots of small fires popping up, including one that burned a couple acres of woods that bordered the north side of our church just a few miles from my home. I back up to a small greenbelt which connects to hundreds of acres of dry trees and grass. I used to love looking around Austin because it was full of greenery and was not a concrete jungle like so many cities… but now all I see is a tinderbox.

As least the winds have died down.

Last night we saw our mother muscovy duck and her 14… no.. 15?? ducklings? Suddenly there was a newcomer, but we could tell it was a mallard duckling. Strange. Haven’t seen any mallard mother/baby groups around here, but since the mallard was being aggressively rejected by the muscovy’s we scooped up the mallard and went to the pond to go look. Ran into a couple kids there that claimed the duckling was theirs, that they had released. They are evacuees from Bastrop, came to stay at a friend’s house and of course they brought what critters they could. Apparently there were other ducklings but didn’t make it (unclear as to why) and I guess then they figured seeing the one mother and babies that they’d adopt this one… alas, that wasn’t the case. We encouraged them to take the duckling back since he’d for sure not make it on his own right now, but I suspect the duckling will be released again because if this family lost their home… what can they do with and for the duckling?

I wanted to reach out and hug those kids last night, tho social properness told me not to. I just didn’t know what to say to the kids so I just let them talk and tell their story. One boy… all he has is the clothes on his back, his skateboard, his fishing pole, and his Bible. He said those were the most important things to him and so that’s what he grabbed as they hurried to leave.

I’ve seen scenes that horrify me, like pictures of the burning homes. Or I can just look up in the sky and see the thick haze of smoke that literally surrounds Austin.

I’ve seen scenes that anger me. TXGunGeek recounts some jackass opting to burn things! Wife told me she read a friend’s Facebook posting where their neighbor was grilling; was confronted and told to stop and he flat out refused. So they called the police and 4 boys in blue came to persuade him to stop grilling. Good. With all that’s going on around us, people continue to engage in behavior that feeds these very situations. People are still flicking their cigarette butts onto the ground. Why they do it is a mystery to me, but I’d be happy to educate them with a size 12 boot up their ass.

But I’ve also seen scenes that make me smile. Local morning DJ Dale Dudley was displaced by the fires but instead of sitting on his butt he got to work to do something about it. While not formally organized, he kept active on Twitter calling for help, working to get with some groups, and organize something to gather donations and get them out to people who needed it. The entire show this morning was talking about the fires, getting information out, taking calls, and so on. Seeing people wanting to help, people setting aside problems and matters of less importance and trying to do what they can to help…. that’s great.

It’s going to take months to recover from this… maybe years. I’m supposed to head out Bastrop way on Saturday and I’m sure the entire drive is going to be done with mouth agape and lots of somber headshaking. Things are going to be mighty different.

It’s hard to get on with my life when I can only think about all the people around me whose lives are so radically disrupted. We are packed and ready to go out the door if we have to, and I even think about that and what that would be like. Frankly, it’s nothing I want to think about. Look forward, help those affected, continue onward.