Our 2nd Cabin Almost Burned Down & This is What Rose from the Ashesfeatured

We lost a cabin to the Holy Jim fire a few years back. It was our special place, our home away from home, our escape, our love nest.

It burned down on a Monday while I was at work and my partner was able to run to the property only to see one last thing engulfed in flames – the stove.

And so, this story won’t make any sense unless I tell you a little about my partner. His greatest love in life is not me – I am ok with that as we are both fiercely independent humans with many passions.

His greatest love is making masterpieces out of the ugliest things. He sees potential in the untouched. He finds beauty is the most hideous of things, seriously – think of the most embarrassing car you’ve ever seen and he has probably owned it and made it his project at some point.

A couple of years went by after our Holy Jim cabin burned and we decided to start over, new location, new cabin, new start. It was hours and towns away from the first. It was a block away from the local fire station so we felt pretty confident New Cabin could never burn down.

My partner poured even more love into this cabin than the first. It became his renovation project dedicated to everyone that he loves.

A few Friday afternoons ago, I got a text that the Borel Fire was near our new cabin, “Pray for our cabin,” he said. Our property cameras showed everything on our property engulfed in flames, the garage, the old workshop – and then the cameras went black. We were sure the fire took New Cabin.

We mourned, cried, and took a mental inventory of all the beauty that went up in flames.

Days later, we got a text with photos of our cabin – proof that it was still standing, unscathed. We couldn’t wrap our heads around it.

What I didn’t mention was that the entire time we were mourning the loss of New Cabin I was more afraid of what a second burned beautification project would do to my mate. I was terrified I was about to mourn losing his bright light – I thought he might crumble from grief, give up, and let go of his love of finding and creating beauty from his visions.

What would I do with a shadow of who he once was?

One night while we were at the height of our sadness (still thinking it all burned down), my love looked at me and said:

“You know what’s crazy?! I know I can do this all again. I can create another masterpiece from an old run-down building.”

I was beyond shocked. Was he serious? Did he really just say he was open to the possibility of trying this again? After TWO fires? I for sure thought he would be angry at the world, at wildfires, at cabins in remote woods.

None of that fazed him.

He wasn’t ready to let his heart harden, he wasn’t ready to let his vision fade into the darkness, he wasn’t ready to let fire ruin what made him feel most alive.

I stood there, in awe of this human I chose to do life with. Suddenly it all made sense – he was put in my life to teach me relentless resilience and hope. While other people may have crumbled at the sight of losing all of it (again), he smiled… rose up from the ashes… and said:

“I can do this all over again.”

Love Deeply and Forever,

“Do not judge me by my success, judge me by how many times I fell down and got back up again.”

—Nelson Mandela