I told you so

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We’re going to be okay. That’s what I tell myself as I contemplate the state of things. 

While it might sound naïve, it’s actually the only efficient side to come down on when considering the current state of things that are hailing down and swirling around us.

Yikes, the weather is clue enough that something is changing on a grand scale. (It’s climate change, which is caused by the warming of the ocean, which is why some people refer to the weather changes as global warming.)

It’s the changing of our planet’s weather systems. And it’s not changing from harsh to idyllic. It changing to big swings and chaotic interaction that carry a new intensity of strength.

I have noticed a change coming for a time. It was always winter when I felt that the earth was sick. I first noticed it when snow storms changed from all snow storms, to snow storms that always seemed to turn to freezing rain.

Now, from rain and temps in the 50s to sub-zero temperatures, the cycles have become pronounced. (In true transparency, I have REALLY enjoyed the warm weather as a respite from the bitter cold.)

I know there are some who will say that this is just a huge weather cycle—as skeptics of climate change often cohort “our planet goes through these cycles.” Whatever you call it, it’s happening in our communities now.

And we have to deal with it. (We’re going to be okay, I tell myself.)

I immediately think about how the roads are going to suffer more damage from continually freezing and thawing and freezing again.  (In the movie version, I picture the earth as a character who desires to cast off these impervious surfacea that we have laid down and tp take a breath.) I am also wondering about the fruit blossoms, and how susceptible my property is to frosts. (Buds come out, frost comes, no apples.)

And deaing with these implications means we need to change how we look at things. How we begin a process of redefining our perspective.

I turn once again to the training of our volunteer firefighters.

Husband Stephen talks to me about his “LACK” training.  It’s an acronym for Leadership, Accountability, Culture and Knowledge. It’s apt because it also means that if you don’t learn new perspectives in firefighting, you will lack. Lack as in lack your life and then how your family will lack and, ultimately, how the community will lack.

The training courses that he’s taking are teaching fire department leaders how to implement cultural change designed to reduce line-of-duty deaths. Many contributing factors to these deaths result from the fire service culture, the reinforcement of unsafe behaviors and breakdowns in safety priorities.

It’s training to help firefighters, among other things, redefine what it is to be a hero. To become un-indoctrinated to understand that heroes are not people who run unthinkingly into a burning building.

Redifining perceptions of what it means to be a hero—this is big stuff!

Another training is called Courage to be Safe. It begins to crack open the societal belief that courage is somehow taking risks. Come to find out, through firefighter deaths, it is not courageous to take risks. It takes courage to be safe. 

On a grand scale, not unlike the weather, this is culturally rewiring ourselves so that we are more resilient in facing our challenges.

Once again, I am in awe of the county fire training programs in the county. They lead the way in understanding that what we need right now is Leadership, Accountability, a Cultural shift and Knowledge.

See, I told you we were going to be okay.

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