{"id":17,"date":"2009-08-31T18:00:08","date_gmt":"2009-08-31T18:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/freshliving\/2009\/08\/lessons-of-loss-in-los-angeles.html"},"modified":"2009-08-31T18:00:08","modified_gmt":"2009-08-31T18:00:08","slug":"lessons-of-loss-in-los-angeles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2009\/08\/lessons-of-loss-in-los-angeles.html","title":{"rendered":"Lessons of Loss in Los Angeles"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n\"wildfire.jpg\"<\/span>Fires in the Los Angeles<\/a> area have “killed two firefighters, destroyed at least 21 homes and forced thousands of evacuations,” according to an Associated Press article<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Really sad and scary. That same article quoted a resident who came home to find only the charred remains of his house: “‘It’s the worst roller coaster of my life, and I hate roller coasters,’ said Adi Ellad, who lost his home in Big Tujunga Canyon over the weekend. ‘One second I’m crying, one second I’m guilty, the next moment I’m angry, and then I just want to drink tequila and forget.’<\/p>\n

“Ellad left behind a family heirloom Persian rug and a photo album he put together after his father died. ‘I’m going to have to figure out a new philosophy: how to live without loving stuff,’ he said.”<\/p>\n

Oof. There’s something incredibly poignant and emotionally articulate in that–the mental and spiritual process we go through when life says, “Here–deal.” It’s not a silver lining or anything–the whole thing is awful, but that line is so powerful: “how to live without loving stuff.” Is it about not loving stuff? Or is it about being able to let go of the stuff we love? (Without too much tequila?) And seeing what’s left when it’s all apparently gone? Is that the lesson of fire? <\/p>\n

We’re sending many prayers and blessings to L.A. and all affected beings for a quick quenching and abating. Please take a moment to send your prayers, vibes, and thoughts their way if you haven’t already.<\/p>\n

[Image via: http:\/\/news.yahoo.com\/s\/ap\/us_wildfires<\/a>]  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fires in the Los Angeles area have “killed two firefighters, destroyed at least 21 homes and forced thousands of evacuations,” according to an Associated Press article. Really sad and scary. That same article quoted a resident who came home to find only the charred remains of his house: “‘It’s the worst roller coaster of my life,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,4,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-by-valerie-reiss","category-current-events","category-holistic-living"],"yoast_head":"\nLessons of Loss in Los Angeles - Fresh Living<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2009\/08\/lessons-of-loss-in-los-angeles.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Lessons of Loss in Los Angeles - Fresh Living\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Fires in the Los Angeles area have “killed two firefighters, destroyed at least 21 homes and forced thousands of evacuations,” according to an Associated Press article. 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She was a founding editor at Breathe magazine, and her writing has appeared in The New York Times, Newsweek, Women's Health, Natural Health, Yoga Journal, Lime.com, Vegetarian Times, and ABCNEWS.com. A native New Yorker, Valerie holds an M.S. from Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism and a B.A. from Beloit College in Creative Writing with a minor in Women's Studies. She also lived in Maui for a while where she drank green papaya juice and taught some creative writing. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/author\/vreiss"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/38"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}