Flame trees, jacarandas and silky oaks, are flowering wildly, against the smoke.

Two months since we nearly lost our house in the Binna Burra bushfire, and fires continue to burn all around us. Our lives are saturated with smoke.

What has been incinerated to end up in the smoke I breathe?

Forest and farm. Animal and plant. Dreams and fears. Homes and lives.

Everyday, all day, we breathe it in. No wonder I feel nauseous.

How long will this go on?

How much longer will our leaders hide from the truth?

How much longer will the science be denied, and the experts ignored?

It’s easy for despair to creep in.

But this is not the way.

Instead:

Keep talking about it,

Keep writing about it,

Be kind (especially to those you don’t agree with),

Keep caring for each other,

Keep your cool,

Keep listening,

Keep explaining,

Keep trying.

Perhaps the only way to stop a culture war is with kindness, wisdom and love.

Irrepressibly, like those trees that flower

Generously, fearlessly, against the smoke.