Raging European wildfires remind us to prepare for life’s greatest losses before they arrive.
Wildfires are consuming parts of Spain and France at a staggering pace. Hundreds of thousands have evacuated, many leaving with only what they could carry.
Whether our greatest loss comes through fire, disease, betrayal, or tragedy, the time to prepare for life’s greatest losses is before the smoke appears.
Every disaster raises the same question.
If everything changed tomorrow, what would still be standing?
“We’ve never seen anything like this.”
— Javier Organista, a resident of El Tiemblo, Spain
The answer isn’t found in our possessions.
It’s found in how we’ve prepared long before the crisis begins.
Three ideas from Europe’s deadliest wildfires offer some intriguing lessons.
1. Preparing for life’s greatest losses means adapting
Survivors acknowledge that “normal” constantly changes.
But the new normal doesn’t have to dictate the final outcome.
Life may never return to what it used to be. But that doesn’t mean something new and even better can’t begin.
“For everything you have missed, you have gained something else.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ponder that for a minute. New dreams can be fashioned in the new normal.
Wildfires remind us that normal is fleeting. Normal is the intermission between storms.
That’s why survivors choose a commanding reference point for…
- stamina
- stability
- strength
…long before the wildfires strike.
At 71, I’ve learned that the old normal is constantly being replaced with the new normal.
Choose your center carefully.
One that can deliver from wildfires.
2. Choose a commanding center
Since we can lose everything quickly, it’s good to stake your central reference point early.
- Commanders have one.
- Pilots have one.
- Families need one too.
Few things are more valuable in life than a central reference point, a commanding center you clutch in a disaster.
That’s the first thing Navy pilots learn.
Focus on a commanding center and don’t freak out.
They learn this in “Dunker” flight training.
- Strap into the Dunker, hands and feet tied
- Thrust upside down into water
- Escape before drowning
Find and hold onto something that sustains in the blast.
Then, regroup and take the next tiny step.
What is the ideal commanding center?
The Maker and Sustainer of the heavens and the earth.
“When the earth and all its people quake, it is I who hold its pillars firm.”
— Ps 75:3
Focus on the commanding center. Not your circumstances.
3. Rebuild with new dreams
Don’t give up on your dreams.
Don’t adopt the dust of disaster as your permanent address.
Lift your eyes. New dreams grow in unlikely places.
The European wildfires won’t be the last tragedy we witness.
Nor will they be the last reminder.
Everyone eventually faces great loss.
The people who endure it best are rarely the ones with the fewest problems.
They’re the ones who prepared long before the smoke appeared.
- Before the fire comes, choose your center.
- When the fire comes, respond. Don’t react.
- After the fire, embrace the new normal.
Then keep rebuilding.
That’s how resilient lives are built and rebuilt again.
Stories like this are part of the reflections I write about life, resilience, and purpose explored on my About Stephen Blaising page.