Comments on: Strength For Those on the Front Lines, Australia Fires

By: river

river — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 21:06:27 +0000

What is a firefighter?
He's the guy next door....
He's a guy like you and me with warts and worries and unfulfilled dreams.
Yet he stands taller than most of us.
He's a fireman....
A fireman is at once the most fortunate and the least fortunate of men.
He's a man who saves lives because he has seen too much death.
He's a gentle man because he has seen the awesome power of violence out of control.
He's responsive to a child's laughter because his arms have held too many small bodies that will never laugh again....
He doesn't preach the brotherhood of man.
He lives it.
~Author Unknown

So as you look at the firefighter with his rake, hose or axe,
His beet red face or ice covered mustache,
You should know why he goes through that smoky front door,

I'LL SHOW YOU A VOLUNTEER

Show me a person who spends endless hours in training without pay,
And, I'll show you a volunteer.
Show me a person where a cry for help brings split-second dispatch,
And, I'll show you a volunteer.
Show me a person who is devastated when lives are lost or maimed,
And, I'll show you a volunteer.
Show me a person who is graciously welcomed as a next-door neighbor,
And, I'll show you a volunteer.
Show me a person who takes ridicule more than compliments,
And, I'll show you a volunteer.
Show me a person whose car is garaged with the grille facing out,
And, I'll show you a volunteer.
Show me a person who sacrifices home life, TV... even tender moments,
And, I'll show you a volunteer.
Show me a person visibly moved at the strains of our National Anthem,
And, I'll show you a volunteer.
Show me a person who may be asked to give more than just dedication,
And, I'll show you a volunteer.
Show me a person who is asked to give more... and more... and more,
And, I'll show you a volunteer.

May all know protection and relief soon

By: archangel

archangel — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 18:38:14 +0000

For the frontline people in Australia: This came from Bruce Moody today. He is the author of, well let me write a short article about it for you today. It's a book about how he stood on the corners of streets for many years as a homeless person, begging for sustenance enough to get through the day. He is in his seventies now, one of the most gracious people I know. He sends this poem today by James Dickey.

Here they are.
The soft eyes open
If they have lived in a wood
It is a wood
If they have lived on plains
It is grass rolling
Under their feet forever.

Having no souls, they have come,
Anyway, beyond their knowing.
Their instincts wholly bloom
And they rise.
The soft eyes open

To match them, the landscape flowers,
Outdoing, desperately
Outdoing what is required:
The richest wood,
The deepest field.

For some of these,
It could not be the place
It is, without blood.
These hunt, as they have done,
But with claws and teeth grown perfect,.

More deadly than they can believe.
They stalk more silently,
And crouch on the limbs of trees,
And their descent
Upon the bright backs of their prey

May take years,
In a sovereign floating of joy.
And those that are hunted
Know this as their life,
Their reward: to walk

Under such trees in full knowledge
Of what is in glory above them,
And to feel no fear,
But acceptance, compliance.
Fulfilling themselves without pain

At the cycle’s center,
They tremble, they walk
Under the tree,
They fall, they are torn,
They rise, they walk again.

James Dickey

By: spiralgate

spiralgate — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 16:34:12 +0000

May the Universe empower those on the front lines to do the work before them. And may the love of the Divine sustain them in the face of the tragedy around them.