When The World Breaks
A Collective Journey Through Grief and Resilience
Western North Carolina is holding Los Angeles with enormous empathy and care as having just experienced the loss of our cities, communities, and the overwhelming grief and shock that comes along with that. Our hearts are breaking with you. We know what it’s like, even though the elements are different, the sudden loss and devastation is all too familiar. The grief ripples out, far and wide.
Nothing can prepare you for what it’s like to see all your favorite places gone in an instant, drowned by water, or consumed by fire. Nothing left but the skeletal remains of buildings that we once knew and loved. Cherished places that have been transformed beyond recognition, toxic mud or smoke lingering in the air, everything rearranged in an instant by the elements, humbly reminding us of our place in things.
We count our blessings that we can awake to a new day, but it feels like we’re in a slow-moving apocalypse, a bad trip that never ends. Who do we become when the familiar vanishes? Who are we when everything we own is gone? We too, become transformed.
It’s a unique imprint of trauma that more of us now carry within us as climate change continues to accelerate, getting closer and closer until it’s happening to us and our loved ones right in our own backyards. None of us are immune.
We are all in this together, sharing the same earth, the same vulnerabilities, and the same need for resilience.
For me, Helene wasn’t just a personal catastrophe; it was a gateway to a deeper understanding of our shared human experience. Every horrific weather event now feels personal, like it’s part of our collective story, reinforcing the idea that our individual lives are inextricably linked to the broader narrative of our world. And our world is burning and flooded and full of toxic debris. Yet, our world remains wildly beautiful and inexhaustibly regenerative. There is hope to be had.
Perhaps our world is not merely breaking, but calling, demanding us to awaken, to pay closer attention, to learn how to live in greater balance. Will we listen?
LA, we’re with you. May your communities rise to meet this challenge and grow more resilient in the face of it, like we have here in WNC. If we can do it, you can too.
Hold each other close, take care of your neighbors, and remember what truly matters. It’s not the things we lose, but the humanity we hold onto that defines us in the end.
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You have so much heart in all that you write. Sensational.
Another AMAZING article written by such a prolific writer! It certainly opens one’s eyes as to the uncertainty of what’s to come if immediate changes are not taken to prevent climate change disasters. Thank you Sarah for your incredible insight❤️