One Month Later

Phil looking at "Magma Chamber"

Looking back -- one month later. Time has a different dimension and life has radically changed shape, not only for us, but for hundreds of friends and neighbors. While we did not have the emotional fortitude to attend Wailoa's "First Friday"  open house, (on June 1st) yesterday we managed to gather enough courage to go see the piece Phil submitted for their current  juried exhibit "State Wide Annual All Media."


The reason for the delay in attending was because a month ago our house burned and a few days later was covered with lava -- including Phil's piece entitled "Magma Chamber." Wailoa Center graciously offered to use a photograph of the piece and frame it -- in order to include it in the show. Of course we wanted to see it.

As we approached the piece, I took a photo of Phil as he stood looking at it, but I did not realized until we returned home how aptly it illustrated or how dramatically it captured how we both feel about our loss -- one month later. It feels like everything we have built and known has been "framed" for us to look at -- look back at -- as though it is hanging on a wall -- and we are standing in some vague shadow at what was our life.

On the other side of that loss is the amazement, wonder and beauty of the earth's own cycle of destruction and creation witnessed in the graphic images being documented and shared around the world. Like other friends and artists we meet, we feel that we stand on the edge of this awesome process, and if there were a "prayer" it would be that the overwhelming pain we feel at our personal loss will eventually subside and something new will be created as emotions, like the lava, cool and we begin to envision a new life and path ahead -- one month later -- one year later.