It was after 4 am on Jan. 27, 1984 when my mother woke me to say we would have to go. Outside my window, the hillside was on fire. I grabbed some clothes in the dark house and remember dragging the dog to the car under a rain of red hot embers.

That fire would change my life forever, not because it burned my house down, a fate of two of my neighbors on the street. The real change came in my relationships with my mom and dad.

The traumatic experiences of that night and the days that followed forged a bond with my parents that has us helped weather conflicts ever since.

I have had a few other disasters come along since to also significantly change my life. I was in Santa Cruz for the Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989, when downtown was devastated. In 2004, I was made homeless by a fire in the building where I was living near Lake Merritt in Oakland.

After the Oakland fire, a manager where I worked who grew up in China told me that fire is said to be lucky there. I don't know if that's true, but after getting through the initial challenges (which were totally hellish) my partner and I found a nicer apartment right down the street.

Disasters, like pandemics, manifest and accelerate changes. As with so many things in life, the universe often serves up a mixed bag. Since we are dealing more and more with disasters everywhere, perhaps we should look at and try to maximize .... disaster's bright side?