It’s a brand new year. I’ve sat at my desk wanting to write so many times. But the truth is nothing felt right. I live in a local government area that borders East Gippsland.  The last few weeks have been odd. Sad. Heavy. We are not a tiny town, but we are small enough to recognise when people aren’t local, when they’ve evacuated from  or lost their homes in a Shire beseiged not only by firestorms but bad politics. You can kind of guess by their demeanor that they are nervous, or staying strong for their kids. You see car parks full of cars packed to the hilt. But this isn’t what the world is watching: they are watching political buffoonary as our PM blunders his way through his first major, record breaking national disaster. They watch as Australia, East Gippsland and Coastal NSW, become global symbols of global climate change.

I’m not sure how to blog about what I want to yet. I want to say things about mixed orientation marriage, sexual ethic in the post-purity culture church, dominionism as it makes an example of both the Liberal Party and of Christian minor parties in Australia, and of the way people take to social media without so much as a fact check to defend the idea that this *isn’t* a global warming issue. As if looking after your planet is somehow diametrically opposed to conversative Christianity in Australia. Its an odd juxtaposition. There is so much to talk about – and I will.

But for the moment, I have to sit with this feeling of heaviness as my country burns. I have to clear my mind of these things that beg for my attention and acknowledgement before I plunge on into the intellectual arguments surrounding the issues I mentioned above.

In the mean time, I’m organising myself. I’ve hired help to get me through the crazy amount of work piling up on my desk. I’ll be *finally* releasing those eBooks I talked about doing last year, and launching the podcast that I just can’t wait to start. It finally has almost a sorta-kinda name.  The first ten episodes are planned. It’s nearly there.

But I can’t write or talk yet before I say this:

RIP to the fire-fighters and forest manager who perished in this disaster so far

RIP to those who got caught in a firestorm and didn’t make it out.

COURAGE to those who have lost everything. My heart and my prayers are with you, and I’m doing what I can to aid those who are supporting you.

COURAGE to those of us who are watching this in disbelief, feeling the sadness, feeling angry over the politics that surround human lives and a national tragedy.
May we emerge from this smarter, more informed, more ready to take on those who don’t want to stand up, take responsibility and fix what needs to be fixed. Australia has always had fires, yes. But not this many, not this early and not this volatile.

I’ll blog more tomorrow. I just had to say this first.

Wishing you peace, and love, and rain
Kit K.