"And finally, deep bows to the fire"

I'm writing this from the Wheelwright Center at Green Gulch Farm. Just outside my room, across from the dining hall, hangs this account of the 2008 Basin Complex Fire, which affected Tassajara Zen Mountain Center.

In it, Tassajara director David Zimmerman writes:

Gratitude courses through this valley and our veins, for we and our community are well and safe, supported in a thousand ways known and unknown by the generosity and efforts of so many beings, so many bodhisattvas, so many buddhas. And finally, deep bows to the fire, whose undeniable dharma teaching of impermanence has earned our awed respect and attention.

What a gracious and respectful way to pay tribute to adversity. Something to ponder throughout the rest of my all-too-brief time here.