Thankful.

Yesterday was a day of thankfulness for me. I was thankful for all the mundane chores I had to do, and the other stuff that just had to get done, because it meant that I was not affected by the bushfires raging in Gippsland. I knew where all my family was, I had an abundance of things, and I had the basics too. (Food and water, shelter etc.) Everytime I went to grumble about having to do stuff (like washing the soot off the clothes line before I could hang my washing out) I reminded myself that I should be thankful that I could still do those things, unlike others who have lost everything in the fires. So that's what I did. I thanked God for every thing that I was grumbling about.

Saturday night was the worst night for us, over this last, black weekend. We could see the orange glow of fires three quarters the way around our horizon. It was as black as black by six o'clock in the evening, and we were getting gritty, sooty winds blowing really, really hard at our place. When it rained later in the evening, it was black rain. It was nearly good enough for handmade ink, the rain contained that much soot. Ben tried to get to work on Sunday,(he's back at work now) to check some stuff out, but the road up to the Loy Yang coal mine was closed, as fires were raging near Traralgon South. There are still fires in that area, but the CFA are on to them. They have been truly amazing, the CFA. They had to work so hard the weekend before and all through last week, on fires further west and then these fires occur. But these volunteers have not quit or said it's all too much and I'm not going to go on. No, they have given their all and then some. The emergency service workers have been just as amazing and the people who have suffered the loss of their homes and loved ones and are still going are truly inspiring.