Barefoot Firefighting

I tease my mother about her shopping habits. She likes things…big. For example, when we brought home a new washer and dryer, we had to cut away the lower wall of the pantry and install new doors so they would 1) fit and 2) you could open the doors. It was pretty funny. After that, dad and I decreed that she wasn’t allowed to go car shopping. Expanding the garage would be a bit more…complicated. *wink*

I was getting ready for a book club gathering (towel-drying my hair actually), when I heard a knock at my front door. A quick glance at my phone told me it was too early for the girls to be arriving, so I was just a little curious to see who was at the door. It was my neighbor. And in a hurried voice she said, “Do you have a hose? Because there’s a fire out behind the house!” I ran out to the back of the house and spotted our hose. I also spotted the flames in the woods behind the houses, so I was motivated to move quickly. The hose is in one of those space saver contraptions, so I just started pulling to see how much hose I was working with. I pulled, and pulled, and pulled…and the hose just kept coming. I felt like a magician who is pulling a colorful string of hankies out of his sleeve, but this was much more important. I still hadn’t reached the end of the line when I decided to pull it out and see if I could get water on the fire.

I had enough hose to stretch across the length of the house, the rest of yard, over the fence, and 15 feet into the brush. By this time the flames were a good 25ft by 15ft across and 12-15ft high. And in my hurry to solve the problem, I hadn’t even stopped to pull back my hair or put on shoes. But with our super-long hose, and my wave of fearlessness, I was able to keep the fire from spreading (and even put a good deal of it out) before the firemen got there.

Needless to say, this is one time when I’m supremely grateful for my mother’s shopping habits. Sometimes those old adages are true: “You never know when you’ll need it” or “It’s better to have too much and not need it than need more and not have it.”

So thank you mom, for empowering me to be a Barefoot Firefighter.

I hope I am always ready and prepared to fearlessly fight the fires that spring up in the underbrush of my life. I hope I keep that “get up and go” mindset and remember that shoes are ideal…but sometimes you have to hit the ground running with bare feet.