THE TIME HAS NOT PASSED QUICKLY

         Yesterday marked seven months since the catastrophic fires that destroyed the communities of Pacific Palisades and Altadena, California.  As an affected individual, I found myself flooded with images from that sorry day, yet not all of them were bad.  I said it then and I’ll say it now – tragic as it was, living through it was a cinematic experience!  My stumble down memory lane wasn’t intentional, nor was it a reminiscence.  I’m at total peace with the material loss, not to mention the radical, unexpected turns that life took in wake of the disaster.

         The synchronicities have been coming on hard and fast ever since, and August 7 was no exception.  While researching something unrelated for a feature I’m about to shoot, I came upon this quote from Beryl Markham (1902-1986).  She was a pioneering British-born Kenyan aviator, adventurer, racehorse trainer and acclaimed author, best known for being the first person to fly solo, non-stop across the Atlantic from England to North America.

         Clearly, she knew a thing or two about loss.  Her insight is profound, and as I can attest from first-person point of view…she was oh-so-very right.

         “I have learned that if you must leave a place that you have lived in and loved and where all your yesteryears are buried deep, leave it any way except a slow way, leave it the fastest way you can.  Never turn back and never believe that an hour you remember is a better hour because it is dead.  Passed years seem safe ones, vanquished ones, while the future lives in a cloud, formidable from a distance.  The cloud clears as you enter it.  I have learned this, but like everyone, I learned it late.”