Last weekend, the Bay Area was hit with both a heat wave and an obscene amount of lightening strikes one morning. To be honest, I didn’t think anything of it at the time and thought this week would be business as usual, but the aftermath resulted in a number of fires that have lit up both the northern and southern parts of the Bay Area. It seems as if we can’t catch a break this year. With everything going on and this piled on top of it, it has made this week an extremely challenging one.

Part of what has made shelter-in-place easier on me was a few things I’ve come to appreciate about my home. When I want to get some sunlight and a stretch, I can step out onto my balcony. At all times of the day, my windows are all open for fresh air. Since the air quality from the fires have been so terrible, we can’t do those things. And for the first time in 6 months, I’ve felt a little trapped. I suppose this is what it would have looked like if the US had actually gone into a true lockdown.

I recognize that while I’m indoors, those not too far from me are dealing with the bigger concern of losing their homes entirely. With many of experiencing loss in different forms this year already, a home – the most sacred of places shouldn’t be one of them. I’ve heard that this weekend’s climate might play a role in making things worse, but am hoping for the best so that we can move onwards to recovery.