Signs of spring continue to accumulate in Western Washington. Fruit trees bloom. Rain falls — this March is our wettest month EVER in Washington. And, as occasionally happens after heavy rains, landslides occur.

A week ago, three million dump truck loads of liquified mountain descended onto the small community of Oso, Washington. In some parts of the one-square-mile slide zone, mud is ten to twelve feet deep.

While at times it’s tough for me to live from scan to scan, I imagine it’s much harder to have one’s home, family, and community wiped out in mere seconds. Recovery efforts continue, but the odds of finding people alive at this point are slim. One young woman lost both her mother and her 4-month-old daughter in the disaster. Others are uncertain if their loved ones were in the slide zone, perhaps on the now-buried highway that passed through the town.

Yet survivors still struggle toward the light, much as blades of grass in our so-called lawn fight to emerge from under a smothering expanse of moss each spring.

There are worse things than cancer. Even so, life goes on.