Six Years Yesterday

I was remiss not mentioning the 6-year anniversary of the most traumatic event in my life. Six years ago yesterday, it was a Sunday (just like yesterday). I was preparing to start my new job in southern California. My first day was to be on Monday. I had said my goodbyes to my wife, daughter – then three years old, and son – five months old. I had my car all packed up and was ready to leave from our house in Las Vegas. The telephone rang, and I answered it. It was my wife, who was over at a neighbor’s house swimming. The only words I could make out were my daughter’s name and “drowning.” I quickly dropped the telephone and ran to the neighbor’s house into their backyard. My neighbor had my daughter on her leg, my wife was in hysterics, and my daughter was not moving. I took her onto my lap and started to slap her back. Within a few seconds, which felt like an eternity, she spit out a mouthful and chest full of water. She continued to spit out the water and was finally responsive. We didn’t hesitate and drove my daughter to the nearby hospital where she was given the “all clear.”

What had happened was my daughter was on the edge of the swimming pool and somehow slipped on the steps. My wife was talking with our neighbor at the other end of the pool. Our neighbor looked over where my daughter was standing, and she was not there. Our neighbor then looked into the pool where she noticed my daughter was submerged. Thankfully, she jumped into the pool and pulled my daughter out in no time. I am not sure if she administered CPR to her because within minutes I was in the backyard. If it weren’t for the attentiveness of this neighbor, I shudder to think about the other possible outcome. Thank God my daughter is now a very happy, healthy 9-year-old who loves to swim. The next summer after the accident, my daughter received swimming lessons and has been a strong swimmer ever since. Needless to say, I never made the drive to southern California, and my first day of work was postponed to the following week. I do wonder if this was a message of things to come, but I soon came complacent in the following years, and more bad things happened. Thankfully, in my second most traumatic event which occurred almost 2-1/2 years ago, I have a program that fights against complacency. My life continues to get better each and every day.

Last night, two more crews were called out to a fire about an hour away from here. There are a total of six crews in camp, and four of them are out fighting fires. My crew is one of the two remaining in camp. Sometimes it does work out this way, and two of the crews have been gone for over one week fighting a fire. If our crew captain did not take his vacation last week and this week, my crew could have been on either one of these fires, but here I sit. I have been here over one month and still have been only on the one fire soon after getting here. This is really alright by me because I think this is going to be a long hot fire season probably lasting until at least December, if not longer. My crew’s turn will come, and I will be looking back at the time when I was wondering whether or not I would be fighting a fire.

The camp seems deserted since four crews are out on fire lines. At least half of the camp is gone, which makes for very good breakfast and dinner service. The dinner service last night was the fastest I have witnessed since being here. Unfortunately, the food that was served was more of a “Happy Meal” meant for children under the age of eight. Macaroni and cheese with ham was the main entrée along with green beans, roasted potatoes, and pudding. I was not very hungry because my dear friends had brought plenty of food for their visit. I did not eat a great deal, and I didn’t even require a lunch, so the minimal dinner was okay by me.

My day was filled with the usual writing, reading, and talking. Talk centered around whether or not the two remaining crews would be laid-in today since it seems all the fire captains were out on fires. As it turned out, my crew along with the other remaining crew was indeed, laid-in today. Who knows if this will carry over until tomorrow? Wednesday, being the Fourth of July, is a scheduled day off, so we could conceivably have five days off in a row. This is fine by me because I would rather sit in the air conditioning rather than be weed whacking, rock moving, or some other outside silly project in the 100-plus-degree heat. Yes, the temperature has gone up, and we still haven’t gotten into the dog days of summer. It really does make sense to treat us like regular-type firefighters during fire session rather than have us breaking our backs on some grade projects. At least, we will be well rested when a fire call actually arrives. Speaking of rest, I had a good night’s sleep for once as I only got up once during the evening. I did do my normal Monday exercise routine. As I was jogging/hiking up the very steep portion of the hill, I fell. This is the first time I have actually fallen. I have come close but always regained my balance but not today. I fell right down on my hands—not a big deal as I bounced up and there was no level of embarrassment as there weren’t very many people outside this morning. I did get dirty (very dirty) but continued on.

I completed my run, but I couldn’t commence my early-morning routine since the showers were turned off. They were turned off last night due to some problem within the water treatment plant and remained off this morning. I didn’t embark on a “bird bath” even though these are acceptable here. I just washed up as best I could and put on a little deodorant to cover the smell. I was thankful to hear the lay-in announcement after breakfast. At least I could take a shower when they were finally turned on.

Since it was a lay-in day, I did my usual starting with reading. I finally finished “The Rabbi And The Hit Man.” This was a true story about the first rabbi ever convicted of hiring a hit man to murder his wife. The author was painstakingly detailed, and I was impressed with the writing. I would have liked to have known more about the rabbi and what propelled his very large ego; however, it was a fascinating story. The murder was committed in 1996, and the rabbi was finally convicted in 2003 after one mistrial. He is now serving 30 years to life in a prison located in Trenton, New Jersey. I only had a few pages left of this book, so I finished it quite early this morning. Since I had all day, I started another book which my mother had sent me, “The Power Of Intention” by Dr. Wayne W. Dyer. He has been on public television many times and is an author of many other books. I really didn’t know much about this book before starting it. In fact, I knew nothing; however, after slowly reading the first few chapters, I realized this is a powerful book regarding intention. Intention, as described by the author, “is a force in the universe, and everything and everyone are connected to this invisible force.” The only way to truly connect to this force is to rid oneself of ego and negative thinking. It is more than self-will, will-power, and strong mindedness. It is about creativity, kindness, love, beauty, endless abundance, and being receptive. The universe is converted by this intention, and everyone can be a part of it on a conscious and unconscious level.

I have only gotten through the first four chapters, but I am already hooked. The author describes a story about adversity and how kindness lifts the spirits of all those involved. The story is about a disabled boy who wanted more than anything to join other boys his age who were playing baseball in a local baseball field. The boy’s father asked, and the other boys agreed somewhat reluctantly. However, something magical happened. The team the disabled boy was on came back from a six run deficit in the eighth and ninth innings. The disabled boy was due up to bat two with outs, a runner on second, and the team trailing by one. He didn’t even know how to hold a bat, so one of his teammates helped him. The opposing pitcher understood the value of kindness and just lobbed the pitch to the plate. The disabled boy, with the help of his teammate, made contact with a slow roller to the pitcher. He was extolled by his teammates to run to first, and he did with wide-eyed excitement. The pitcher, again understanding the value of kindness, threw the ball deep into right field. The disabled boy ran to first, then to second, then third, and finally home scoring the winning run. As he crossed home plate, both teams hoisted the boy up on their shoulders in triumph. The author states at the end of the passage, “If you don’t feel a tug in your heart and a tear in your eye (my eyes welled up as I was reading) after reading this story, then it is unlikely that you’ll ever know the magic of connecting back to the kindness of the supreme all-originating source.” I did paraphrase the story, but the meaning is the same—kindness is infectious all the way around and goes to the source.

This is not a book I can breeze through because I find myself re-reading many passages to understand the proper meaning. I have read books in the past about spirits and spirituality, but I felt these were just hocus pocus. This is not the case with “The Power Of Intention.” My life is connected to so many events, and most of the events have been positive. Unfortunately, over the past few years, I lost my way, but through recovery, I am finding my way. Recovery and Intention have so many similarities such as powerlessness, higher power, trusting, and spirituality. In the short time I have spent with the book, I can already see it strengthening my recovery. Also, it is no coincidence that I picked this book up today. Positive energy abounds, and the source has been created with all positive energies. It may take me awhile to absorb this book but so far so good.

There were bonuses with being laid-in today such as being able to call my wife today at lunchtime. Also, I forgot to mention that last night I had a very good telephone call with my mom and got to speak with my daughter who was spending a few days with her along with her cousin. Another bonus today was being able to receive the mail early. I received two letters today; one from my mother who has become very proficient at sending me letters, the other from my 14-year-old nephew who certainly has a way with words. We have been corresponding for the past two months, and our relationship continues to grow. He is a great person. I can’t stop thinking of him as a kid, but at 14 years of age, he is past the kid stage and writes lovely letters. It was a great day, and it showed me that even being laid-in can have many more benefits than being out on a grade project.