Rob Keating
New York, USA

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A Firefighter's Story

I've been a firefighter for three years. I was a police officer for New York City for 10 years before that. I'm assigned to Ladder 21 at 38th street. I took The Landmark Forum and it changed my life, like I know it has for so many others throughout this city and throughout the world.

I decided many years ago that I wanted to make a difference in people’s lives. This commitment, however, was a quiet one. I worked everyday with people, I touched their lives in numerous ways, but I never expressed myself. I kept my feelings, my emotions, and my thoughts to myself. One thing that I will forever be thankful to The Landmark Forum for is that I now express myself. I am able to actually be with people – the people I have always chosen to serve – in a way that I never could. The Landmark Forum allowed me to know them and myself in a different way, to recognize their individual importance, their individual value – not just silently, but openly.

On September 11, 2001 my shift at work ended at 8:00 in the morning. When all the firefighters and police officers were recalled, I went back down to Ground Zero. We lost 12 firefighters in our company that day, and I personally lost some close friends.

Months and months have gone by. At a company picnic we recently held, all the families were there with all their children – even though many of our buddies were no longer there to take care of them. On the one hand I felt whole, but also at the same time, incomplete. As I sat there I felt very lucky to have the wisdom and knowledge that’s available in The Landmark Forum available to me. It helped me deal compassionately and effectively both with my close friends and those who I knew less well and to be with them in the enormous loss they experienced.

I think before I took The Landmark Forum I kind of just ran from thought-to-thought and impulse-to-impulse, adding my thoughts and overlays as I rushed through life. Now I find myself being able “to be” with what happens and be with people without adding a lot of interpretations and meaning. Instead of being in my head with the rushing conversations, “I gotta handle this, I gotta handle this,” I am now able to actually be with each person wholly, individually, completely. I don’t know if I could have done that without The Landmark Forum. I am very appreciative for what I have in my life – my job, my friends, and the difference The Landmark Forum made for me.

Like me, Landmark Education was affected by September 11 – when they lost their headquarters. Thanks to Armand DiCarlo and his staff, Landmark is going strong in New York City, making a difference for people like me.