The Fire Department

I have been really active on the fire department, particularly in the winter and fall (paddling off-season). I’ve literally lost count of how many calls I’ve been on, but it’s a lot! I’ve been to MVCs, building fires, a great mock-accident at the High School, a few fire alarms and medical assist calls. I spent nine hours on the roof of Extra Foods for a fundraiser, and yes, I can add that to the list of Weird and Unusual Places I Have Peed (that will have to be another post)! I’ve helped out with some fire hall tours — I always have fun with the little people. I’m not a newbie any more; we had eleven new recruits start in fall, so I have actually been giving some advice and help to them, both in the hall and on calls. I’m in that netherland between newbie and experienced firefighter. I’ve gone to lots of training, and I now know enough to be dangerous! Seriously, I have learned a lot, but there is still so much more to know. I started taking the Emergency Medical Responder course, but unfortunately had to drop out. It was a good course, and it covered a lot more than I expected. Even though I only did about a third of it, I’m glad I went — now on medical calls, I have a much better idea of what the EMRs and EMTs are doing, and I can help out more. I’m getting fairly good at a few simple tasks, but I am still challenged on virtually every call, which is why I joined the department in the first place! Never a dull moment — and that’s what’s life’s all about! | Fire Dept posts |

Personal Life

I’ve got to say, my personal life has been great this year. I’ve been surrounded by friends, and even when I was stressed about deadlines and completing the York boat on time (photos here), I still had people around me, notably my friend Michelle’s parents in Calgary, who gave me a place to stay for two weeks, fed me, and were so amazingly generous and kind. My relationship with my husband has been great, and we’ve been connecting better all the time. I enjoy our late-night pillow talk; we just chat about whatever has been on our minds. When I am stressed, I can tell him about it and we figure out something that will help. I am so loved by friends and family, sometimes it just amazes me… I am so full of gratitude and appreciation!

Business Success

Flow North had a great year! After doing the Paddling the Peace River guide for GeoTourism Canada, I was hired to run the York boat project, and then I got to be the Captain of the boat on the big, 18-day expedition. It was fantastic! I couldn’t have asked for a better crew, although at times, looking for a crew stressed me out the most. In the end, it worked out so incredibly well, one could only say I was blessed. I’ve got 5 more best friends than I had before the month of June. Beyond the York boat, I got to run a couple of canoe camps, several canoe parties, expeditions, and had lots of fun at our weekly “Family Canoe Nights” as well. What a *great* summer we had! It didn’t hurt that, as usual, we had the nicest summer weather of the province, and perhaps even in all of Canada! Not much rain, lots of sun!

A Few Struggles

That’s not to say it was all sunshine and roses. There were a few struggles in the fall, with some bills from the summer piling up and expenses from the York boat not being paid. Things got a bit slim, but that’s what happens some times when you’re in business for yourself. We have exchanged time freedom for money freedom — we have plenty of the first and less of the second, whereas most people have very little time freedom, but more money to work with. We created a few websites in the fall, which was great. I’m really quite proud of what we did: Northern Express, Fox Haven Golf and Country Club, Patrick Cameron
Even though we have time freedom, I still felt the crunch of not enough a few times. I am still volunteering as the secretary of the Northern Lights Forest Education Society, which is developing new trails and busy with various other activities. I am also a board member of the Mackenzie Frontier Tourist Association, which has taken up a bit of time on web development and other duties (I’m not ready to share that website yet — it still needs a lot of work)! On the other hand, I stood up for myself when the workload was getting too big and said “I can’t keep doing this for free. Normally, I charge for this work.” There is always good in the bad!

The Coming Year

There are lots of changes a-coming, which I won’t go into right now. But my vision for the year includes:

being more consistent in exercising

planning our meals better so I feel more organized

continuing to learn more about fire fighting

getting a part-time job doing radio work, either dispatching or in air traffic services again (woo hoo!)

expanding my business and being amazed at my success, yet again!

doing lots of fun things with my husband and friends!

being more carefree and playful (and helping my friend publish a book all about play!)

So, most of the time, I am excited and eagerly anticipating the year to come. When I’m not? When I get caught up in the business of life and my to-do list. Nothing new there! Stay tuned for more adventures!

Most people, when they fear doing something, avoid taking action until the fear goes away. “I’m too afraid right now. I’ll do it when I’m feeling more confident.”

The problem is that fear never just goes away by itself. Most people have it backwards. You don’t overcome the fear and then do the thing; you do the thing and then you overcome the fear.

I came across a related article that expanded on this further, written by Jennifer Gresham. She says

How do you make yourself act in the beginning, when you are scared out of your mind?
When you feel scared to make a change, move forward with questions instead of answers.
It’s easy to over-analyze and fret over answers. If you let one question simply lead you to the next, the process is a lot less threatening. Curiosity can be more persistent than fear if you cultivate it.

Some interesting things to think about, aren’t they? Earlier this winter, I felt quite frozen by indecision. I was trying to decide what direction to take for winter work, but at the core, I was nervous about the change that it represented. I had several options, and although some seemed quite interesting, none were really igniting my passion. I saw Jennifer’s suggestion to move forward with questions and gave it a try.

I asked myself “how would I like to spend my time? What am I really good at? What is the best use of my skills (and therefore my time)? What type of work would suit me best?” Asking myself questions like this helped me cut through some of my confusion and figure out what I really wanted. And none of the questions triggered fear, which can be one of the most paralyzing things about making a decision or taking action of any kind.

So, questions spurred on by the desire to learn something about yourself or figure something out can greatly help you find curiosity where there was fear. Once you feel better about things, the answers to just some of those questions can help you move forward. Don’t worry about questions that don’t have answers; I didn’t have the most enlightening solutions at first, but my brain worked on the questions for a while and my intuition really kicked in and I got some fantastic ideas — things I was really excited about.

What if you are stuck on questions that seem hopeless, like “how am I ever going to make this work?” If you catch yourself thinking like this, counter with “what one small thing can I do to improve just one aspect of this situation?” You can turn “what if this doesn’t work out” into “what if this does turn out? There is probably a 50-50 chance… what would that look like?” If you can start imagining your situation improving, even a little, you’ll head away from fear and towards confidence, courage and curiosity.

The Christmas season is such a study in contrast — rich/poor, jolly/miserable, giving/getting, gratitude/selfishness. It’s supposed to be the season for happy family get-togethers, coffee that reunites sons and fathers, and skating on open rinks with your beautiful, lovely children. Do you ever feel like American culture is stuck in a time warp? This cartoon hits the nail right on the head (click for larger version)!

Now, I never grew up with Christmas traditions, so I’m in the unique position to see them for what they are — mostly silliness! But I think so many people have bought into them so thoroughly that when some part of their life doesn’t match up, they are severely disappointed. Tis no longer the season for jolliness –

Tis the season for self-pity!

When you feel even mildly disappointed or discouraged, catch yourself before you sink into a full-blown self-pity party. Stay happy anyway. So what if your family won’t be together for Christmas. Or maybe seeing your family stresses you out — stay happy anyway. Do something you enjoy, whether it’s part of the traditional model or not. Don’t feel like you have to go skating with your tots just because that’s the traditional thing to do (you don’t even have to have kids, but that’s a whole other blog post)! You don’t have to make a 10-course meal. You don’t have to buy presents for everyone you know, or send out a hundred Christmas cards if you don’t want to. It’s 2011 — you don’t have to do what the baby boomers did! When you compare yourself to others, or to the idealistic traditional model, and feel like you come up short, you can get upset and slip into self-pity pretty easily.

Grumpy people are actually entrenched in self-pity, and grumpy people don’t attract happy situations. So don’t be grumpy! You don’t have to be a pollyanna, just be yourself and stick your tongue out at some of those silly traditions! And of course, the best way to beat self-pity is with gratitude. Christmas would benefit from more thankfulness!

Related posts: Peace on Earth | Cheering Up | Happy Birthday Jesus

Top 10 Modern Products I Can — and Do — Live Without!

Some of these things I consider scams, and others are just things I have left out of my life for simplicity’s sake.

10. A Coffee Maker. Yup, don’t have one. We have a one-cup-at-a-time funnel brewer thingy, and we have a bodum if we are making for more than one person at a time. Lots of people have those Keurig machines — I use the one at the fire hall and it’s great — but I can live without it! Our main reason for no coffee maker is to save on counter space.
9. Workout machines. You know, the Bowflex, the Ab Circle, Leg Magic, Vibraslim, Stairmaster, treadmills, ellipticals, etc… I’ve been doing crossfit workouts, and most of it is basic weights, using your own body weight (like in push-ups or pull-ups), or doing things from sports. Getting out and doing real things with your body is the best!
8. Fancy fabrics. I’m talking about some of these ultra-thin wool undergarments that cost $80 for a shirt. Or sweat-wicking workout clothes… an old T-shirt works just fine. Unless you are climbing Mt. Everest, I think most of these fabrics and clothes are a scam (and some don’t even look like they are made all that well).
7. Make-up. Although I own a little bit of make-up, I only use it a few times a year. Last time I wore mascara, I regretted it — I got a paint-covered eyelash in my eye and it wouldn’t come out for 3 days! And do I look ugly? No. My skin is as nice as ever, mostly due to what I eat.
6. Video Games (like Wii, Nintendo, whatever). I know, by now you think I am a total freak, but hey! I have never owned one of these, and somehow I have lived. I play games on my computer or online sometimes, but I just never got into these plugged-into-my-TV games.
5. Microwave. While we actually do own one, we only use it to warm up our wheat bags when we need a little heat on our feet (or wherever). We don’t use it to irradiate our food. Not that that’s bad exactly… we’re just keeping it real! And you can re-heat and cook everything better using other methods, like the oven, stove and barbeque.
4. Satellite dish. I don’t like TV, so I don’t have any. Don’t have cable either, so if we want to watch something, we use DVDs or stream it over the internet. So it’s not that I’m a techno-phobe, I just have no interest in TV, and especially dislike commercials.
3. iPhone. I don’t have one, and you know what? My life is not terrible! I might get one, someday, but for now, my simple cell phone does the trick just fine.
2. Orthotics. I used to have them, then I didn’t. I massaged the arches of my feet with a tennis ball and switched to Vibram 5-Fingers (basically, the opposite of orthotics) and I couldn’t be happier. NO foot pain, more foot stability, and no problems (granted, I don’t wear high heels anymore).
1. Tooth paste. You can get tooth paste with baking soda, or… you could just use baking soda!! Baking soda really works every bit as well as tooth paste, and you can skip the nasty chemicals in most tooth pastes!

So, this post is not intended to make you feel guilty or make me look weird. It’s just the way I feel about some modern devices, and maybe it will make you think differently about them too!

P.S. Can you believe this is my 300th post on this blog!?! And I started over 6 years ago? Crazy! If you’re new to my blog, welcome! Feel free to browse the archives or use the tag cloud at right for topics you are interested in!

Perhaps at this point, I had better add **WARNING: GRAPHIC MATERIAL — NOT FOR SQUEAMISH PEOPLE OR THOSE WITH A WEAK STOMACH!**

I signed up to take an EMR course, and this Fri-Sat-Sun was our first full weekend of training. EMR stands for Emergency Medical Responder, for those who don’t know, and it’s normally about 80 hours of classroom time, with lots of scenarios to practice too. Tuesday evening was our first class, and it went well; after Friday’s class, though, I was starting to feel a little overwhelmed! An EMR friend of mine said that an EMR is more-or-less a “really good first-aider,” but I think he under-played it! We have to learn quite a bit of anatomy and diagnostics — or at least, how to figure out what might be happening to the patient. I’m surprised at some of the examples our instructors are giving us — the things they can figure out, on the scene of an accident or if someone is gravely ill, with very little diagnostic equipment or tools — perhaps just a stethoscope and a blood glucose meter. The rest is done by feel, by looking, by listening and asking questions (if the patient is conscious).

I’ve got to tell you — I enjoy helping people and stretching myself, but this is taking it to a whole new level! If you know me, you know I’m not afraid to try new things, get outside my comfort zone (what comfort zone?!? ) and “get my hands dirty.” But this is people’s blood! Yikes. We watched a video to learn about anatomy, and the doctor hosting it was just digging around inside the cadaver, to show us this organ or that artery. “Way under here… is the spleen!” It was crazy! She was so comfortable with it, I was just overwhelmed. The blood and body parts were not a problem; it was just overwhelming what we needed to know, and that we might be the ones diagnosing these problems on a scene. Obviously, a doctor at the hospital would make his or her own conclusion too, but we would make our observations, act on them, and pass them on to the docs.

Don’t get me wrong; EMRs are very limited in what we can actually do. We don’t start IVs or give medications (except ASA or oral glucose), but we do insert airway tubes, administer oxygen, and take blood pressures, for example. That’s a lot more than a first aider just feeling for broken bones or doing basic CPR! EMRs work on ambulances and provide basic life support. Sometimes, they work with an EMT or Paramedic, and as such, there are a whole bunch of medical terms we have to know. In most places (cities), they would do a minimum on scene and then transport the person as quickly as possible to an ER (Emergency Room), but out here, we have over 400 km of highway to cover, and as such, transport times can be very long and we might end up doing several reassessments and treatments to keep the person going until we get to the hospital. There are even bone fractures that a patient here might not survive, simply because of the transport time and capability of our hospital. We have an operating room, but there are only some procedures our doctors can do, and they aren’t fancy emerg surgeons! When there’s a procedure they can’t do, the patient must be flown out via medevac to Grande Prairie (about 45 minutes by air, and they can’t do every surgery either) or Edmonton (about 1 and a half hours away). I am learning more about the health care system than I ever thought I’d know.

One crazy thing I’ve heard lately is that the Alberta government is handing the emergency medical care in High Level over to a private company, rather than take care of it themselves. It seems a little weird, since such an arrangement costs more, and has less-integrated and less-professional care. I might be writing a strongly-worded letter about this little bit of strangeness! Why should us northerners have less-professional EMRs and EMTs responding to calls, and they’re using less-modern equipment!

Soon the fire department will be helping out though, by officially being part of a Medical Co-response system that allows us to go to medical calls when the ambulances are busy or if there are multiple patients. That’s why a bunch of us volunteer fire fighters are taking this EMR course, put on especially for us by Alberta Health. We have medic-bags on most of our fire trucks, so we can do quite a bit once we know how!

Suffice it to say, I’m learning lots in this course, feeling a bit overwhelmed, but I think I will enjoy it and I know I will be able to help a LOT more as an EMR than as a first aider. Oh, did I mention, we had to cut class short yesterday due to a call-out to a bad MVA (Motor Vehicle Accident)? Yes, my day was 5 hours of class, 3 hours on the call, and then a workout. But man, I slept awesome!

Subscribe to my blog to hear all the updates on the EMR course and my other adventures!

The problem is, we get so caught up in examining what is there, we forget that we have the power to imagine what we want and create our reality. We also tend to take a pessimistic approach to what we see, and this makes us more likely to get into a rut, or worse, a downward spiral.

For example, if you watch the news, you may hear about various aspects of a recession that is going on. They’ll give stats or anecdotal stories about how it isn’t ending yet, it’s worse in this sector or that area of North America, or whatever. But that is such a small part of reality! In lots of areas, things are looking up, business is increasing and people are prospering! I’m as busy as ever (hence I haven’t been blogging much, sorry about that), and this winter is predicted to be a really busy one. While there might be unemployment elsewhere, that sure isn’t the case around here. In our local newspaper, they reported that the only limit to our “boom” this winter will be staffing shortages. And I can’t help but think it’s partly because we don’t give too much attention to the “reality” that is talked about elsewhere. I’ve heard that US news is still very heavy on the the recession, while Canadian news is not. Could that be why it hasn’t hit us as badly — because we don’t give it as much attention?

I wonder what would happen if we went on a “news fast” and stopped listening to stories about other peoples realities, and just focused on our own? What if we spent just 2 minutes every day, imagining how our lives will be in 6 months? I bet that in 6 months, we’d be exactly where we envisioned ourselves, especially if we did this imagining or envisioning consistently.

Let me give you an example. I was able to manifest an incredible crew on the York boat last spring, once I got incredibly clear on what I wanted in a crew. I was very specific; I had a list of about thirty things that I wanted. After I got that clarity, the crew just worked out perfectly — and I mean perfectly — even though people still cancelled and I could have reverted to my mode of being stressed out about it. But I didn’t. I believed that the perfect people for the crew would be on board. Whenever I was tempted to feel stressed, I just reminded myself about the clarity and fanned the spark of faith — faith that I would end up with a great crew. And let me explain what I mean when I say “after I got that clarity.” I am not speaking of divine inspiration or a profound message of intuition. I just sat down and in my rational brain, with a hearty dose of imagination, said and wrote down exactly what traits I wanted/needed in a crew.

They key to it all was getting past my current reality. I was two people short. One guy could only do the first 4 days — then what?!? Who would I find to do the other 14 days? I only had a confirmed crew of 4, including myself — I thought it wasn’t possible to go with less than 7. It turns out we ended up with only 5, but they were the perfect 5 and we didn’t need anyone else. We managed superbly, so well in fact, I’d say we thrived. So even though the photo above looks like we are working hard, we were actually having the time of our lives! You just can’t tell by looking and you just can’t believe what someone else says is “reality.” Get your own!

**Look closely at the photo above, and count how many people you see. See 6? Extra people came out of the woodwork when we needed them, and we actually did have 7 people for about 2 days. Although it worked, we were a little crowded. So, you see, all that time before hand I was stressing about finding a crew of 7 when all along I only needed the perfect 5.**

Related Posts: Mind Your Television | Endpoints | Lies We Believe | What if…

Having the time of our lives...

Imagine getting into your vehicle, putting it into gear and then trying to drive while looking backwards over your shoulder. Wouldn’t work too well, would it? Instinct would tell you not to touch the gas pedal for fear of hitting something. If you forced yourself to go, it would be tough to keep it going straight. If you managed to go straight, you’d still be in trouble because you wouldn’t see what was coming or be able to avoid people who move into your path. Obviously, you can’t drive this way, yet this is how many of us try to live our lives.

You can’t move forward while looking back.

Today is September 11th. It’s the tenth anniversary of that fateful day — you know the one, I don’t need to tell you about it. All day long, we’ll be prompted to remember what happened. For many, the memories are so strong, they will be pulled backward in time to relive it. If you watch TV today, you will see lots of memorials and some messages of fear; you’ll be drawn into remembering the past.

Remembering is not an entirely bad thing, but it’s a form of looking backward, and if you want to move forward, you will have to limit your remembering. You’ll have to very consciously control your thoughts and switch to looking forward after you’re done remembering.

When you focus very strongly on your future, you rocket forward towards it, but when you think about the past, you move forward tentatively — slowly, hesitantly, shifting back and forth — like a person trying to walk down a pitch black hallway he or she’s never been down before. You can’t help but move forward — time doesn’t travel in reverse — but it will be slow and scary. If you focus on your future, with a clear picture of what you want it to be, you will move toward it very quickly. The more often you focus, the more quickly you will move.

So, I’m not saying don’t remember what happened today. I’m not saying to pretend it didn’t happen. I’m just saying, don’t get wrapped up in remembering and caught up in the drama of it all. Come back to the present. Dream about your future. Fantasize about a happier, more peaceful future for the whole planet, if you like. Believe it can happen. And look forward while you drive.

Today, we tried out our sailing canoe! Darren did all the rigging and took it out first, while I was kayaking, and figured out how to steer and turn and all that! When I was done, he took me across the lake, which was awesome! We actually had the boat tilting enough that I had to lean, which was exciting and a little scary, but in a good way. It was very cool. Unfortunately, we didn’t get any pictures of it, but I’ll leave you with a pic of the boat on land. Extra-special thanks to Uncle Keith for giving it to us! We love it!

And here’s a few from the Hay River and Chinchaga River trips!

A neat spot on the Hay River where a loop of the river has been closed off, creating an oxbow lake.

Lovely scenery along the Hay River

One of many Canada geese we saw.

Looking towards the Chinchaga River from our campsite

The bank is eroding out from under an old cabin along the Chinchaga River.

All of us on the crew got along amazingly well, and we’ve formed such strong friendships. We were each other’s only friends, family, soul mates and work mates for 18 days — two days longer for the crew members who helped prepare beforehand. It was a bit of an adjustment getting used to having other people around, and although we did have people visit us along the way, we ate, worked, joked, and slept together all the time, so we became very connected. Some of it was the phenomena of bonding in a crisis, but most of it was simply kindred spirits living in pure friendship and adventure.

So, as always, life goes on. Everyone went back to their old jobs, or started new ones, and I’m back at juggling multiple projects, running my business, and volunteering. Ideas abound — some relating to the use of the York boat and some unrelated — and I am trying to decide which ones to follow up on and which to leave alone for now. Some times it’s tricky living in the present, because I still wish I could go back to those fun, inspiring times.

I will leave you with a few pictures of our trip! There are plenty more on the Flow North blog – York Boat Photo of the Day! Enjoy!

Why do bad things happen to good people?

Because they expect it to happen.

Watching a mere five minutes of the news will convince you that the world is full of terrible people, all your neighbours are criminals, war is breaking out everywhere, all policemen are corrupt, and Mother Nature is punishing us with natural disasters. And we are all pretty sure we know why — we deserve it.

Here’s an example of how the news has affected a lady I know. The evening news was filled with serious reports about forest fires raging through Slave Lake, a medium-sized town in Northern Alberta. There was a strong wind pushing the fire, causing it to spread faster than they could put it out, at least initially. The whole town, around ten thousand people, were evacuated and a whole neighbourhood, about a third of the town, burned down — a serious situation, even a tragedy. The Premier, being interviewed for the news, looked like he might cry.

One of the first comments I heard this particular lady make was “oh, there will be looting! With all those homes empty, there will be LOOTING!”

What?!? The town is empty! The only people there are fire fighters, and even if there were others around, that is the absolute LAST thing that would happen. I know this town, and it just would not happen. But years of living in a big city, listening to the radio news every hour and watching TV news throughout the day has completey skewed this woman’s view of the world, and also her expectations.

She expects the worse. Wherever she goes, whatever is going on around her, she sees crime, tragedy, illness, and other newsworthy stuff. I’m afraid to say that this is what she will attract into her life, because the Law of Attraction is ALWAYS at work.

You ever heard of the lawyer’s house that gets broken into repeatedly? The woman who continually has car trouble because she is always worried about her car? That man who gets ripped off because he’s always trying to cheat the other guy?

We each get what we THINK about most, especially if there is strong emotion involved, and what we EXPECT. It’s sometimes also what we WANT, but sometimes we get the opposite of what we want because the thinking and expecting are so strong.

Except for today, I have not watched the news for weeks. It’s a good thing, because I am working on focusing only on positive things, and I gotta tell ya, I get courteous drivers around me, holes in the traffic, mostly green lights (but red lights let me check my map or change my music), and I believe it happens because I know it’s possible. It is not only possible, it’s virtually* guaranteed when I focus on good things, and look for the best in people and situations around me. I have started expecting to have days that go smoothly.

Sometimes it’s hard. With the fires in Slave Lake, all I can think of is that this is a chance for our fire fighters and emergency co-ordinators to shine. And shining they are.

* only “virtually” because I’m sill practicing!

I’d love to hear your comments on this!