Where There's Smoke

As the impact of California's largest wildfire continues to expand, learn how "smoke" signals the nature of your surrounding circumstances, others' behaviors, and the expanded reach of your words and actions.

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I'm in Tahoe City, where the sights are beautiful, but the air is smoky. And as you know, when there's smoke, there's fire.

It's smoky here, but the Mosquito fire is about 40 miles southwest of me. As I film this, it just became California's most destructive fire of 2022, scorching over 64,000 acres and displacing 11,000 families from their homes.

And it's only 20% contained. Thousands of fire fighters are battling the blaze every day, and unhealthy air continues to expand and impact across a considerable distance.

As we pray for rain, favorable winds, safety, and containment, let's not miss the message here. The saying, "where there's smoke, there's fire" isn't entirely true. The impact of destructive circumstances, actions, and behaviors travels much further than the source of its origin. Consider this both in the smoke you witness and the impact you create.

First, let's start with you. If you "light up" in anger, or breach your ethics, morals, or relationships, thinking the impact will be easily contained, please think again. Destructive words and behavior take root in your soul and psyche and drift to reach others you know and don't know. When you ignite unintended actions and emotions, quickly put those fires out yourself.

Secondly, when you get a whiff of foul play, trust your nose and intuition. Don't jump to immediate conclusions, attributing the source to the most obvious culprit. But don't ignore what you know to be true or accept bad air as the new normal. All our best to the brave heroes working to save people, homes, and wildlife.

Wherever you are, please take a moment to empathize with the displaced and support the effort to extinguish the fires and subdue the smoke, as we all work to, metaphorically, do the same.

Until next week, stay Off Balance On Purpose.

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