Y
ou might want to sit down and take a deep breath because I’m in a rare mood right now, as I’m sure most of you are since the recent Paradise/Magalia/Concow wildfire experience. As horrendous a time as this has been, it has created a window of opportunity to do something really amazing in this area that will inspire generations to come. I know this is easy to say as I sit here in my home, food in my stomach, and a fire in the fireplace, but trust me, I feel your loss deeply and want justice in the form of finances and immediate help. My wife and partner, Dhara, and I will be doing everything possible to be there for you, which is why we are opening the Lotus Guide Center for Healing & Information in association with LOVE’S VIBRANT ART in the heart of Paradise with the help of Marianna Love
32
www.lotusguide.com
and Ray Varlinsky, who have donated the use of their business space. The fact that Marianna Love’s art made it through the fire is as close to a miracle as you can get. As I stood in front of the little wood home that was Marianna Love’s studio for so many years on Honey Run in Paradise where most of her art was stored and realized it was the only home to make it, I
glanced over to a little sign that said, “Protected By Angels” and maybe it was. The videos that we took right after the fire are very revealing for the trained eye; there are many anomalies to say the least. But what touched me more than anything was to see some small decorative piece of art that survived on someone’s fence, a toy scorched in the ashes, walking with reverence through a family’s lifetime of possessions and dreams all in ashes. When the profoundness of the situation hits you … well, let’s just say that it’s impossible to really wrap your head around what happened here. I remember sitting on a burned-out car thinking of how bad things were when it occurred to me, “Thank goodness this didn’t happen at 2 in the morning; there would be many thousands of people missing and dead.”
