That’s a great analogy.

I think of it as a forest fire. It burns and ravages the land, then there are ashes and smoke. And slowly, nature heals but it’s never the same. There might even be some trees planted in the memory of what was that before, or some ruins. They are repurposed memories, memories you did something with and are now growing into something new. It could be something to remember them by, something done in their memory.