Today, one month ago, our home in New Mexico exploded. A propane water heater malfunctioned, and caused a massive explosion that was so powerful it knocked us off our feet and ignited our home in flames. We scrambled to put on clothes and find our cat. We grabbed nothing because we spent every possible second searching for our cat,until the poisonous gasses, black smoke and violent flames chased us out.

Nothing survived that fire… The house was made of brick adobe… which I thought would be more fire proof, when in fact, it acts as a giant kiln oven that incinerates everything. There was nothing left. We only cared about saving the cat and each other… and each other is why we didn’t die looking for our cat. We lost our magic cat. We are beyond heart broken. The loss of our home, the loss of all of our belongings, and the impact of nearly losing our lives in an explosion are not the losses that we are grieving. We are not replaying our loss or trauma over and over in our minds. Instead, we play cat videos.

We both have tons of videos on our phone of that funny and wise cat. We laugh, we cry, we grieve, we remember him, we miss him… we’ll always love him. He’s still taking care of us. He’s magic. He’s a master teacher who came to us disguised as a mouser. And we recognized him…

There is much more that I will soon write about our cat and his magic, about our house that was enchanted, about our initiation into Being, but I would like to keep this post as brief as possible… and begin rebuilding with a foundation of gratitude

I’m grateful for our neighbors who took such good care of us. They brought us food, water, chocolate, warm clothing, blankets, towels, toiletries, and essentials. They offered us their homes, should we need a place to stay. They came over and helped us search for our buddy, our cat and are all continuing to watch out for him in case he somehow escaped the fire. I am so grateful and amazed at the generosity and compassion extended to us by the members of our community. Thank you so much.

I also want to thank our fire fighters who are all volunteers. We live off grid and it’s not easy… there are no fire hydrants off grid. The fire took out the electricity to our well. It seems that a crucial element in fighting fire is water. So, our fire fighters recruited at least four different fire departments and borrowed trucks from other departments to haul water to fight the fire and made sure it didn’t spread to our neighbors. I want to thank our friend and fire chief Carl Hanson, for helping us get through this. Your leadership and care are really felt in our community. I also want to thank the Madrid, turquoise trail, Santa Fe county, and Galisteo fire departments for coming together and organizing the massive operation and amount of resources that it took to put out the fire.

I also want to thank our friend and soul family, Netters , for listening to her intuition, for opening her third eye, for opening her depth of heart and soul, and for opening up home and insisting that we stay with her. Thank you for taking care of us and for using your professional expertise in helping us make informed decisions.

I also have so much gratitude for our house and the energy that occupied it. She made us strong.