Uma Ellie

I wrote “The Outside In” about the Sonoma fires and the depressive episode I was coping with at the time. I lived in the Bay Area and I remember the sky turning orange from the smoke billowing from the grapevines of the wine country, over the Bay to my home on the Peninsula. We had to stay inside because of the bad air quality. I remember feeling equal parts trapped and safe, which was a new feeling at the time, but one I would grow more accustomed to in the coming years. I went back to visit Sonoma about a year later, and saw mistletoe growing out of the charred remnants of trees and bushes. A striking light green contrasting the black of the charcoal. New life growing from ruin.