Lawson’s Landing shines bright
The wind on the Sunday night of October 8 was disconcertingly strong. I had a feeling trouble would come from it. We got a call the next day at 3 a.m. from a neighbor warning of possible evacuations from fire. We gathered a few of our most valuable possessions. From our window fires burned on Arrowhead Mtn. ridge.
Smoke filled the air. Wild horses wanted to run.
Evacuation
We held tight until Wednesday afternoon here at our home by the Napa Street East Schell-Vista fire station. An unnerving and extreme pall of smoke hid the potential of fire jumping out from even 50 yards away. There came an advisory evacuation order; we took it. The horses ran. Later the advisory evacuation order turned mandatory. Maps showed the fire to be very close, with new winds threatening to push towards town.
I wasn’t sure where to go but my landlord said Lawson’s Landing (just south of Dillon Beach at the mouth of Tomales Bay) was offering free camping to evacuees. That was it. We checked our directions, drove our little convoy through the evacuation traffic jam and arrived in the dark to set up camp.
From here on out, for the near week we spent at Lawson’s Landing, we were taken care of with great care by the Lawson-Vogler family and their employees. All told, 500 evacuees came to the Dillon Beach/ Lawson’s Landing area. My impression of Marin County is now permanently altered for the good. More on this below.
Since we go car camping and long distance hiking for fun, and have all the gear pretty much ready to go, this evacuation camping out was not that much of a physical hardship. We had a picnic table. The location was more than pleasant, with dunes and beach right there, and the air mostly clear.
Loss of home and community?
The anxiety was hard, of not knowing that status of our home, and of whether or not we would be unmoored from our community by the loss of home. Where would we go? What hardships would we face by losing all of our contact, social and employment networks? Given the already tight rental market, plus a new housing emergency layered over that, we knew that a loss of home would spell our exodus from Sonoma.
(There has been a more slow-moving loss of home crisis at play here in the North Bay region, easier to ignore and dismiss, as it displaces only one family at a time. More analysis and comparisons on that in opinions to come.)
Home
Home is the place from which we engage the community. With physical home lost, there is no basis to engage from, the life-supporting structures of a community-adapted species are gone. With loss of home, all plans and the fabric of social life are stripped off. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs kicks in: no roof, no bed, no table, no chair, nor comfort and stability from which to maintain higher levels of actualization.
Welcomed by Lawson’s Landing
While evacuated from our own community, we fell right into another. We had two amazing people show up in our lives, and we were very fortunate for them. Nicki Vogler gave us entry into the Lawson’s Landing community, and all the caring and support that comes with that. Nicki opened the Lawson’s Landing door for evacuees and welcomed them into a unique (Marin) west county rural culture and family. The belonging we recently lost was now graciously extended by strangers to us. Strangers no more!
Mike Seybold of Marin County Fire, gave us two thorough briefings, and the emotional tools and sound advice to cope and go forward. Mike is a clear A-Team guy, whose words, actions, and demeanor were a solid, stable point in the storm. Mike is the best of the best. I know A-team people. I’ve seen them, for example, Schell-Vista first responders and Dr. Joey English at California Pacific Medical Center. It felt really good to see those Marin Fire Dept. red trucks driving past the Lawson’s boathouse, to come and fill us in.
I can’t help but think there is a larger California spirit here, and that the values of Bay Area people, all the way around, are special.
Food and basic caring at the center of community
At Lawson’s Landing, Thursday morning, we awoke to frost. The stars gave way and the sunrise slowly unfolded from night sky. Ocean waves pulsed in glimmering sunrise surf, with views to Tomales Point and Bodega Head. The Lawson’s crew fed us a great, hearty evacuee breakfast from the core of their own community gathering place, across from the boathouse.
More great meals and gatherings followed, including being invited to a birthday party, and to a special paella brought and prepared by a woman who lives far away. Many folks wanted to and did serve the evacuees. Laundry and showers were opened at Tomales High School; the school superintendent offered expedited registration for kids.
This region of Marin County has a Community Emergency Response Team (CERT), led by former state trooper, Sheriff’s deputy and fireman, Ted Melden. Qualified? Ted is the leader of the Dillon Beach Emergency Response Team (DBERT.) He organized all kind of things behind the scenes, and linked civilian resources to government, fire, and law enforcement resources. These folks were ready! They had it covered. They were so able, in my opinion, because they already have a small, well-functioning face-to- face community; the existing relationships made it possible to work so well.
In the end, the Lawson’s Landing community turned an anxious and uncertain emergency fire evacuation into a lasting positive experience for all. These folks extended the belonging they already have to us; that was the best gesture of all, the offer of inclusion. And to be included, you have to graciously accept the help offered by others.
Paint the boathouse
On one of the last days there, I saw Cameron Vogler, Nicki’s newly 18-tear old son, painting the boat house. I took note and the next day showed up and offered to help, as I had kept all my painting tools in my truck. That was fun. Working together ties the threads of friendship, and laces a community together. There’s no better way to join in than to work with others.
Kahlil Gibran on work
“You work that you may keep pace with the earth and the soul of the earth. For to be idle is to become a stranger unto the seasons, and to step out of life’s procession, that marches in majesty and proud submission towards the infinite…”
“And what is it to work with love? It is to weave the cloth with threads drawn from your heart,
even as if your beloved were to wear that cloth. It is to build a house
with affection, even as if your beloved were to dwell in that house. It
is to sow seeds with tenderness and reap the harvest with joy, even as
if your beloved were to eat the fruit. It is to charge all things you
fashion with a breath of your own spirit…”
“Work is love made visible. And if you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy. For if you bake bread with indifference, you bake a bitter bread that feeds but half man’s hunger.”
Life has to go on here, and work of all types, for pay or not, is the business of life. It’s your offering, now in crisis, later in the mundane. Mike Lawson shared with me some of his work in pics and stories of fun 4th of July floats he made, with his dogs in them.
Pepperoni, extra large
One of the Lawsons and her crew (sorry to not remember everyone’s name) made the rounds of the campground one day offering gear and supplies. We were pretty well set. I took some drinking water and a small propane bottle, and I joked to order a pepperoni pizza. Darned if the next day she did not bring one from Santa Rosa! With a special note written on it. That’s some spirit, some winds of fun and life.
Pay them a visit
While at Lawson’s Landing, I took a number of very pleasant beach walks that included seeing and experiencing many coastal pleasures: dunes, sandpipers and sea birds, dolphins, sea lions, sea shells, sunset, watching people fish and crab, and views of the Marin and Sonoma coasts. Camping, both walk-in and drive-in, mid-week will be quieter and more placid. This is a cool scene with cool people. Overall worth your while to check out, for a day trip or an overnight on the beach.
And imagine one day, this place and its people cared for and sheltered evacuees from the great October fire of 2017. This is the potential to give and to include that we all have. I’m honored to have been taken in.
No comments:
Post a Comment