Ash

Jennifer Jolley's Ash is a reflection on the composer's memories of ash-fall.

"I never saw snowfall as a child growing up in Southern California; it was more a phenomenon that I saw in cartoons or read in children’s books.

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I did, however, witness my first ash-fall when I was in elementary school. I looked up into the clouded sky and saw specks of ash falling from it. Excited but puzzled, I looked to my elementary school teacher during recess and held out my hand. "Oh, that’s ash from the wildfires," she said. At that time, I couldn’t comprehend how an enormous forest fire could create a small flurry of ash-flakes.

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Now I have the ominous understanding that something so magical and beautiful comes from something so powerful and destructive."

-Jennifer Jolley