Embers

Our RFS Brigade was called out to a grass fire earlier this week. While on route to the fire, a call came over the radio from base saying the fire was currently at 20m x 20m, but with a strong gusty wind it can quickly go pear-shaped. Somebody in the back of the truck said "ahh it's only 20 x 20." Only the week prior we had been working on the Hill End fire at Alpha Road which, before it was contained had grown to 18,000 ha. That fire started as 20m x 20m. In fact, it started as a lightning strike, probably 1m². It's funny how hearing the 20 x 20 comment and working on a 18,000 ha fire, it made me think of our goals, and how quite often we only focus on the big end result and fail to focus on the process... ember by ember. What starts as a small ember grows into a little flame which grows into a fire, then into a bushfire, and before you know it, it's a blazing, running, wildfire emergency.  We know it, but most don't do it. We fail to find the spark, the tiny ember in every project and to fan that small spark to create a flame. Iris Gardner a guest on The Mojo Sessions EP 109 said, "Keep an ember to blow into a bonfire, that can become a wildfire." What can happen when we focus on the process? Well look at the photo here on our first night at the Hill End fire when that 20m x 20m had grown to 1200ha in half a day, and that was just the start of a week long battle.