We are experiencing a time of great turmoil right now; destruction, chaos and pain. It’s exhausting and overwhelming. But it is also an opportunity. Because the possibility exists for the inconsequential, the small and mundane desires that no longer serve us, to be swept aside as deep, consequential energies rise to the surface.   Questions […]

“There are things that upset us. That’s not quite what we’re talking about here, though. I’m thinking rather about those images or words or ideas that drop like trapdoors beneath us, throwing us out of our safe, sane world into a place much more dark and less welcoming. Our hearts skip a ratatat drumbeat in […]

  What do you tell a woman with two black eyes? Nothing. You’ve already told her twice.   I’ve heard this joke my entire career. Just about every single year, someone on the job will feel inclined to recite it to me usually in response to domestic abuse that has occurred on a call or […]

    Every hero doesn’t go do this great big hero thing. They do the simple thing over and over and over. And they have the persistence and they stick to it.  * No matter how much technology has evolved, it comes back to human will, human chutzpah, human resilience.  –Matthew McConaughey discussing Interstellar in Time.   […]

It’s Sunday morning in Dade County, Florida. I’m working on Engine 66 and so far, before noon, we’ve run on a woman suffering from delirium tremens due to alcohol withdrawal, a “male having a breakdown”, threatening to kill himself and his wife, and a sweet 93 year old lady born in 1921. So much for […]

Triple F is a mindset.  An attitude.  It’s a determination to forge our mind, body, and spirit into an indomitable flame. Indomitable means “impossible to subdue or defeat” and flame is pure energy and light, so I find indomitable flame an inspiring metaphor for human potential.  To become this indomitable flame means taking the path less […]

One day, many years ago during the fire academy, we had to search for a downed firefighter and then drag a dummy out of the tower.  That part was relatively easy.  Getting it back up numerous flights of stairs was another story.  I remember standing at the bottom of the tower with this enormous hunk […]

Inspired by my Mother’s recent passing in late March of last year, I founded Triple F-Fabulous Female Firefighters!  In that time our membership has grown six hundred strong.  The beginning of a new year is upon us and now is a fitting time to look back over our past accomplishments.  So many of you have […]

For millennia, humans have sat before fires, huddled together on cold, dark nights and told each other stories.  Mothers and fathers have sent their children off to sleep adrift on fairy tales for ten thousand years.  And before our species even knew language, we drew symbols of magic and hunting and death on caves to […]

I had lunch with my good friend Susie the other day, and as we sat by the water drinking Coronas with lime, the subject of women in the fire academy came up. We both knew someone who had entered the academy completely physically unprepared.  At 5’2, Susie is small but incredibly fit and strong.  She […]