We Evacuated at 2am

When it rains it pours…or maybe more apt for us this week, when it ignites, it burns. 🔥

This is a heartfelt update on what has been an incredibly scary, stressful, and exhausting week. Thank you for bearing witness and holding space for our highs and lows. 🙏🏼

So where do we begin? 

We wanted to tell you all about how we held the most epic wedding retreat this past weekend with a gorgeous group of souls. Mountains were climbed to majestic views (where we filmed their ceremony), locally grown food was eaten, and an integrating sound bath was had.

In our case we never thought of offering a retreat for a wedding, but our talents with food, video production, and music made us pretty much the only people for the job. It was really something special. 👰🏼‍♀️🤵🏻‍♂️🏔🎶

What random assortment of gifts do YOU have that may seem unrelated but could be mixed together to create even more magic in your life and the lives of those around you?

We also wanted to tell you about crossing an incredible threshold on Monday night. 1.2 THOUSAND people came to our Live Sound Bath! 🤯😄🛀🏻🎶 We were blown away by that, and wanted to remind you that with consistency comes growth.

Last year during the pandemic, when we first had to figure out how to take our music online, we would be stoked if 50 people came our Facebook Lives. But now we are 7 months into offering weekly lives on Insight Timer, and to have that many people impacted by our music, using it to help find peace and healing in their lives, well it was a moment of growth worth marking. BTW, we have live sound baths every Monday at 8pm PT, wanna come?

Tuesday we sang for a global group of graduating entrepreneurs. It was powerful, and we were riding high from all the great events from our week. 

But then came Wednesday, and just when we thought we’d have a rest day, a fire broke out on the next hill over from us. 🔥 Our power went out first and then I saw the smoke billowing and planes roaring overhead. ✈️ It was 7pm and without much daylight left for air attack, we watched as the fire grew in the whipping wind. Nathan was out of town visiting some family and it was so difficult to decide whether he should drive home. How serious should we take this? But as fire crested the hill, and I started seeing flames, we decided he should come back. 

The night was a blur. We ran around, filled with adrenaline, doing whatever we could to run irrigation and wet down trees and plants around our house. We wore masks because the smoke and ash was getting so thick. 😷 We were faced with that surreal and difficult predicament of choosing what to pack up. Hardrives, passports, heirloom jewelry, childhood photo albums, my late father’s journals… we started stuffing suitcases and bags. 🧳 We could see firetrucks racing up our hills and knew that despite all their efforts the situation was becoming more grave. 🚒We started packing instruments thinking forward to the first in-person events we would have in over a year the next day. Would they even happen? Would our house burn down? 

At 1:48am we got the shrill Level 3 evacuation notice on our phones. 🚨 A police officer came round to our house and encouraged us to leave immediately. The first photo above shows the view looking at the hill behind our house. It was red with fire. 

So at 2am we evacuated. Myself, Nathan and my Mom slept in our van and waited out the night knowing there was nothing more we could do. 🚐 I couldn’t sleep as the extremely volatile winds rocked our van, and instead updated friends and asked for prayers. Every loving and comforting word that was returned meant so much. ❤️

This moment, so unexpected, and so stark, was one of pure surrender. We left our home knowing it might not be there when we returned. There was a sort of spiritual sharpening of focus as we gathered what truly felt most important and left the rest to impermanence. 

The next morning, as the fire continued to burn all around our hillside, forcing hundreds more families to evacuate just like us, we drove back up the hill to see if our house still stood. Thankfully it did. 🏡 We returned to see fire fighters still actively putting out flames and homes completely surrounded by black, but they had saved them. 🧑🏼‍🚒

Safety was shaken and we desperately needed sleep, but we had two back to back gigs that evening. Our first in person events in over a year. We decided that people were counting on these healing offerings, and when more could we need them than during this fire? We considered we might just need some of that healing ourselves. So we dug deep and persevered to play two beautiful sessions. The Wakes and Waves: a sound and acupuncture experience was beautifully received and held a much needed space of calm and release for all of us. We even had two men drive from 4 hours away to attend, which was a real confirmation to us that we didn’t cancel. 🙏🏼

It always amazes how deep we can truly dig within ourselves to keep going amidst hard times. In the surrender we can find the energy to keep going. And in the loving arms of community, we can be held.

Life can truly spin us around and upside down in an instant. We can ride the highest high one second and then next find ourselves in a plunging low. Our mindfulness practice can help support us as we face the whiplash of life. We can learn to stay present, to feel the depths of the moment, to observe and take the next step knowing that is all there is. No, we didn’t always feel so calm cool and collected as the fire bore down on us, but I would like to think as we left so many things behind, it helped us to know we would be okay – together. 💕

P.S. Thank you again for bearing witness to our highs and lows, as well as the insights that come from the fire of experience. 🙏🏼 I’m sure we will be learning from this for a long time to come.

Please know we are so thankful to everyone that prayed for us, checked in on us, offered us support, meditated on our safety, and kept us surrounded in a spirit of love. We truly felt it. ❤️

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