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Good Morning The wildfires that have been burning in North America and Europe, destroying natural habitats and people’s homes, are a frightening symptom of our planet heating up. But the question that has continually come into my mind is ‘What would I take if I had to leave my home in such circumstances, with perhaps an hour’s notice. I live alone without pets so would not have to think of a cat or a dog. Would I have the presence of mind to take my passport, credit cards, mobile phone and laptop? After that, what? Photos that haven’t yet been uploaded onto virtual platforms, perhaps of me as a child? Or jewellery – the rings that I usually wear that remind me of three generations of remarkable women in my family – or clothes? Objects that remind me of my parents or friends might be important or a few special books from the thousands on my shelves. I might have to choose between monetary value and keeping memories intact. Perhaps, though, I would only think of preserving my own life or of making sure my neighbours had been alerted to the threat and so would leave my house with nothing. Mind exercises like this force us to think about what is important in our lives – material things, memories, or the immediate needs of those around us. The two religions that feed into my identity, Buddhism and Christianity, offer remarkably similar aids. A verse in the popular Buddhist text, the Dhammapada, says – ‘A fool is tormented, thinking, “I have children, I have wealth.” But indeed he has no self of his own, let alone children or wealth’. The verse encourages us to let go of thinking in terms of ‘I’ and ‘mine’ and of protecting what is seen to be ‘mine’. Only if we do this, Buddhism teaches, can we move beyond torment towards mental and emotional liberation. And the Sermon on the Mount in Christianity warns us against storing up treasures on earth, with the words ‘For where your treasure is, there your heart is also’ encouraging us to see that we can be spiritually imprisoned by our attachments to material things and perhaps even to memories. If I lived up to these insights, fleeing my home, I should rush to help my elderly neighbour escape the fire without thought of self. Yet would I do this? My attachment to the objects that have made me who I am might be too strong. I’d like to think I would be selfless and still have time to grab my credit cards. Possessions, though, are transitory. Kindness and compassion last.