 Hello there, my beautiful, lovely, talented, and delightful internet friends. Welcome back to my channel. Thank you so much for joining me here today. I'm really struggling with knowing what to say in this video. I've lost my house twice to fires. The first time was at 16. There was a gas spill in our garage. It got sparked. My house went up. The second time was in 2013 in the Black Forest Fire. It was a wildfire. It claimed many, many structures, many homes. It claimed two lives. It was a devastating time for my area and our house was a total loss. So I've gone through losing significant things to fires a couple times in my life. I hope that the third time is not the charm because twice is more than enough. But right now my state of Colorado, my home state where I'm originally from of California, a number of other states are experiencing really bad wildfires. People are losing their lives. A lot of people are losing their homes. Land, air quality. A lot of people are having a difficult time breathing. If you're interested in the logistics of how all this happened in my own life, I'll link a video up above and down below. But I wanted to take a moment today to address anyone who might be facing losing their home right now, who's evacuated, who is concerned and nervous. Maybe you have just found out that you did lose your home. That is a devastating thing to go through. Something that most people told me after I lost my house in this fire was, it's just stuff. Hey, it's just stuff. You can replace stuff. And it was something that a lot of people said to me to, I think, comfort me, to help me. And I appreciated that. But at the same time, it took a while for me to realize that it wasn't just stuff. It was my sense of safety. It was my sense of routine. It was my memories, like where I grew up, my childhood. It was irreplaceable things like my grandmother's teacups and jewelry and things like that. And it is your life turning upside down. It is everything that you had suddenly vanishing. And that is really difficult to go through. I think, at least for me, it was really important to recognize the mental health implications that that had, how disorienting that can be to grieve what was lost because it's really easy to just shove it on the rug and be like, you know what? It's just stuff. I'm fine. I'll buy some new clothes. We'll get a new house. It'll be fine. But going through something like this is traumatic. I think even going through the thread of it can feel traumatic anyway. It's right. You might lose everything. You might have a place to live. You might not. It's a freaky thing to go through. I also wanted to get on here to say, if anyone is facing this right now, if anyone is experiencing this, that there will come a time where you feel at home again. I think this was a subconscious fear. I didn't really know that I had after losing everything, after having the rug of my life ripped out from underneath me and my family. It takes a really long time to trust somewhere, to feel safe again, to trust somewhere, to feel like home. And that can take a minute. However, I promise you that you can find it again. If you have lost your home, if you've lost everything that you own, if you feel adrift and scared and frightened and just weird, know that a time will come when things don't feel like this. Know that a time will come where you do feel safe and at home in a place again. Like I said, it can take a little while. It can take a little work. It is a really hard thing to go through, but you're not alone going through it. You're not the only person to have to experience this. Unfortunately, there are people who do understand this and it's really important to take time to grieve this loss. It's really important to pay attention to your mental health to reach out to people, to get in touch with resources, get in touch with friends who are safe and know how to listen and be there for you, especially after all the logistical stuff is done. When you are experiencing a disaster like this, there are so many things that have to be taken care of, like finding a place to stay, like having a roof over your head, like finding food, like getting clothes, like just so many different, like little details. But as that clears out, as the little details are taken care of, as survival mode kind of comes to an end and you're left with just life that is different now, please take time to pay attention to your mind, to pay attention to your mental health because I know it can definitely suffer with something like this and there's no shame in reaching out. It's okay if you feel like it was more than just stuff that you lost because it is more than stuff that you lose and please know a day will come where you do feel at home. I'm really sorry to anyone who's experiencing this right now, who's evacuated, who is under threat of losing everything, who has lost everything. It's a really hard thing to go through, like I said, but they're welcome a day when things are not complete chaos and do not feel so weird. I'm living proof of that. I was able to find a place that feels like home again, even though it takes a little while sometimes. So please hang in there. Please reach out for help. I'm going to end that video right here. Like I said, if you were looking for sort of the larger story of how I lost my house twice to fires and more details and some more insights and stories I have from that, I've linked the video up above and down below, but I'm going to sign off there. I really appreciate you guys listening. I love you guys. I'm thinking about you. I'll see you in the next video. Bye guys.