I live in Napa, CA. On Sunday, October 8, 2017, some of the fiercest wildfires in history broke out on one of our mountainsides. It quickly spread due to unprecedented winds gusting to 60-70 mph. Napa and several surrounding counties, Sonoma, Solano, Lake, and Mendocino have suffered unimaginable losses of human life, animal life, property, and livelihood. Luckily, my family was spared. Sadly, many whom we know, were not.
In the face of this devastation, I have also seen incomparable kindness, love, compassion, volunteerism and generosity. Napa will survive!
I had the opportunity, due to a work commitment, at the end of this week of fire, to visit one of my favorite places. I fell in love with Pacific Grove when I arrived in California 27 years ago. It is all together beautiful, energizing and peaceful. After a week filled with smoke, anxiety, and unknowing, it proved to be all that and more. I had thrown my bike in the back of my SUV before leaving home, just in case. It turns out that we had almost a full free day on Saturday, so of course, I rode. I was off before most of the tourists were even awake. I took in the sunrise, and I rode along one of the most beautiful stretches of coastline one can imagine. 50 miles and 4 hours later, I felt renewed.
And just as the lone cypress is resilient against the odds, so too will be Napa. We will recover. We will love and help each other. We will move forward. We are #Napastrong!
Song of the day:
Ride on!
You are a pretty remarkable person, such kindness . S x
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Thank you.
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I wish you well, Michele.
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Thanks Jim!
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Thinking of you and letting you know that you continue to be an incredible inspiration.
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Thanks Tam!
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Thank you Michele for letting us into your days and thoughts. I appreciate reading them and I feel like I am there in your travels.
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Thanks for your kind words Juliet! 🙂
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I’m glad that you found a little time to enjoy life. Glad that you and your loved ones are safe. Keep up the positive outlook.
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Thank you! It was quite a week!
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Michele thanks for this beautiful post. I want to echo the nature of our amazing community and the grace that has been shown under devastating circumstances: https://topochinesvino.com/2017/10/13/napastrong-proud-of-my-community/
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It is an amazing community! Glad you made it through as well! On to helping with re-building…
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Are you attending WBC17 next month?
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I doubt it since I don’t know what it is. 🙂
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One of my favorite rides too!! What peace!! I found this week that the kids are so resilient! Been great to be back at it!
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Kids absolutely are resilient. Thank God!! 🙂
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I hate pyros.
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