Wildfire

The summer of 2018 was super hot and dry in Scandinavia.

Only in Finland there was several wildfires every week.

I followed the situation in the news,

but never end up too close.

On top of the fells I could smell to smoke when the wind was right.

Last week I had a privilege to visit one of the burned forest areas of the last year.

This place is in Sodankylä and my friends family owns the burned land.

Have you ever been in a burned forest?

I have never been in one.

And for me the experience was magical.

Surely, I can't even imagine the tragic side of it.

My friend with all the other village men

were here together trying to stop the fire to spread.

If there had been some argue between the neighbors,

they were all put a side for these days when everybody worked together.

My other friend, who works in local volunteer fire department,

told me that he was so tired after the summer,

being 24/7 watering and monitoring the burning areas.

He told me that after everything,

he had to cut his long hair,

as he couldn't get the smell of smoke out of them.

So all respect for them.

I totally understand.

But now, after everything,

I took this trip purely as an adventure to unknown for me.

Entering to the burned land,

you can feel huge difference in the atmosphere.

First thing I noticed was the black trees.

And the quietness.

Walking in the burned forest felt like walking in a battle field.

The battle was over for now and it was time to collect what was left.

You can sense the death, the sorrow and the lost.

Although an year has past

and little blueberries and lingonberries are already growing from the ground,

you can feel the trees still surviving from the trauma.

For the trees time pasts so must more slower than for us.

As they can live 200 hundred years,

something that happened an year ago,

feels like an yesterday for them.

It hurts me to see and feel their pain.

To see them still weeping.

White tears running down on their trunks.

Wildfires are part of the ecosystem.

They can be lighten up by any favorable situation.

By the lighting of the thunderstorm

or by careless fire use by humans.

But the nature will always survive.

It will always find a new way to thrive.

The ashes will give nutritious ground for new to grow.

It will be a slow process

and we humans will live too fast to be here to see it all.

But it is comforting to know,

that it is there, happening all the time,

right under our noses.