It’s Thursday, so our small group headed up the Incline like we do most every Thursday throughout the year.  This time, however, was with heavy hearts.  We paused at the top of the Incline to look out over the city.  Normally this is such a beautiful site as the sun is coming up over the horizon.  Today, not so much.  Smoke covered the entire front range and you could see smoke billowing up in the Black Forest where the fire is still burning.  Conversation of the morning of course focused on the devastation.  Needless to say, we felt somewhat guilty that here we were going about our normal activities when so many have been impacted.

There’s been so many inspirational stories and people with such great attitudes in the face of potentially losing everything, like Vanessa.  And once again, the response by our firefighters, police, National Guard and all the first responders has been incredible!  Also the great community response in providing much needed donations or whatever is needed to support those displaced or those first responders.

I personally have not been directly impacted by the fire and can't imagine what those people are going through, but the run this morning did provide some much needed normalcy as it is a gut wrenching situation to witness and the run did provide some time to reflect.  This tragedy reinforces my belief in people and how resilient they can be.  This is yet another display of what an awesome community we live in as everyone comes together to provide support.  Our thoughts and prayers definitely go out to all those affected and we’re extremely grateful to all those first responders.