HELLO !

Welcome ! Relax, Enjoy !
Upcoming Topics to include, but by No Means Restricted to : Current Events (My Take & Of Course, Yours...), Emergency Services (Fire / EMS, Police...), Recovery ( whatever that may mean to you and Certainly - What it means to Me), Hope, and hopefuly some Humor, and perhaps, [Dare I Mention This Evil ?], Politics...[!].

 Today, i sent a piece to my friend Tom at firefighterfightscancer.blogspot
Tom's a 'Former' Firefighter, ( if there is such a thing... ), and Cancer Survivor. Having 'Survived' a few things myself, and being Tom's Friend, ( 2 Entirely Different Topics, Really, i Promise...), Tom asked me to submit something for his blog. So I did, i Hope' you enjoy :


Tommy is a friend of mine. I’ve only actually known him about a year or so, but we’ve been Brothers for a Long Time. Tommy’s work has been to break down doors & crawl around in ‘the muck’ to find people, I’ve been the guy Outside who gets the hand-off. (Although, I’ve done a little ‘ Inside Work’ as well.)
I don’t have, nor have I had Cancer. I have another potentially fatal illness that requires some, but not too much daily attention. I also have chronic pain and fatigue from Degenerative Disc Disease, but that’s another story. The Point is this - I have had, at various times, to re-examine, and restructure My Life, to adjust to Conditions as they present themselves. As Firefighters & EMT’s, we become so accustomed to doing this On-The-Job that it becomes our Second Nature.
But it seems that when we are called to make drastic changes to the way we Live, and the way we View our Own Lives, this change comes slowly and with great difficulty. At least it did in My Case. Personally, I’m quite stubborn in my ways, and only make drastic change as the result of great external pressure for that change.
But after I make the needed Changes, just as in Firefighting, the result is Progress!
I read about Hope here. I read about and Practice Hope elsewhere in my life as well.
My commitment to Hope is that I make the needed Changes in My Life and stick to them, best as I can One Day at a Time, in order to acquire the Hoped for result. If I do that, the Quality of My Life improves along the way. So far, So good. Now Tom is among The Many who can tell you I’m not nearly perfect at this stuff. ( I still smoke cigarettes for example, and Tommy gives me da’ bizness for that, & then let’s it go...But, I think he works too dam much, So There !).
My Experience has been, that My Life as I lived it No Longer ‘Worked’ for me. My Strength has been, that when I’ve been able to make the needed Change, My Life improves. My Hope is that I’ll be able to maintain the needed Change, and perhaps, like my Good Friend Tommy, Help Others along the way...jw