4 ... Gabriel Morrisblowing towards us and, judging by the increasingly dark, reddish
plumes of smoke, the fire was growing rapidly. We expected it to
come bursting out into the meadow at any time.
We all moved back towards the center of the meadow, not yet
ready to concede actually leaving the area for good. People were
coming out of the trees from all directions to gather in the clearing of
the main meadow. Many were shouting various commands of what
to do. All of them sounded as if they knew for certain what needed
to be done to deal with the sudden crisis at hand.
“Start packing up your belongings! The only thing we can do is
leave, before the whole forest burns down!!” one guy was yelling.
“No, we’ve got to start a bucket brigade if we want to save our
home!” Another man was shouting desperately. “Don’t leave if you
love the forest!”
Still others were trying to calm people down, saying that we should
just stay in the meadow where it was safer than in the trees, until we
had better instructions as to what to do and how bad the situation re-
ally was. I followed this advice, which sounded the most reasonable,
keeping my eyes open for John and my brother Christo, who were
elsewhere at the gathering that day. I stayed in the meadow with
many others, marveling at the event taking place before my eyes, and
the different ways in which people were reacting to the crisis.
There was soon a steady file of people leaving the gathering with
their belongings. Many more were gathering in the meadow to watch
in awe of the billowing smoke filling the sky. There were also lone
people sitting in the grass meditating, and small groups praying and
holding hands, in stark contrast to those running around, shouting
commands to one another, some of whom even had walkie-talkies
to shout into. It was good to know that there was at least a hint of
modern technology here to help us out, since we were clearly in a
situation over most of our hippie heads.
A huge circle of confused and concerned, yet energized people was
amassing in the meadow. In the center of the circle, a large pile of
white five-gallon buckets was forming. Some people were filling them