the countdown carer assessment visit

"shit just got real"
        "The wilderpeople" movie.

with last minute tidying & making safe tasks underway,  i am procrastinating.  well really just having a coffee & reflecting on where i am at in life. happily divorced & with my two children in their early 20s i guess i was looking forward to more "me time". i don't know what that would look like because i haven't had it since early adulthood; there've been partners & an ex- wife that needed support,  my children growing up at home then my ageing mother.  it seems that i've always been there for others. i expect the future will be no different.  
at the moment I'm going through the proves of becoming a "relative career" for 11 year old H* whose parents struggle with drug dependency & it's impacts & other relative carers feel by the wayside. when i heard he had been placed in a modern day orphanage, or was going through trauma number ten,  i  just thought "that's enough". no longer can i stand by watching people crumble away as this little fellow's tender life resembles a train wreck. 
my expectations are that he will initially fit in & then begin giving us great joy.  yes,  there may well be incidents that impose on our peace of mind,  but a longer term focus will be upon growth & healing from  the traumas that H continues to experience.  already i can feel myself tapping into a great reserve power of compassion that had so far gone unexpended, the experiences that I've gained in previous work& study,  have fermented,  will stand me in good stead to promote that goal of  positive growth & healing.  

Popular posts from this blog

the week ending 10dec23

Image
I haven't been onboard this week, due solely to the fact that she lays some 300k from where I live.  I do have good news though, and that is that this week I took formal ownership of JS and am about to secure the Clareville Beach mooring. The very same Clareville Beach from where Ann Gash departed and returned from her solo circumnavigation. I have new lateral chainplates to install too, so apart from shipping safety gear (flares, vhf & ?), I just need to overhaul the anchoring gear and  ready for sea. SydHarb is just 16nm, head to head, so a solid halfday's sail could see us swanning around under the coathanger. Apart from getting under sail and testing her out, the under the bridge sail is the only immediate goal I have for JS. Taking a dump out the front of government house and Vaucluse mansions are two other perverse pleasures I may take part in, though l will need to mind the Fun Police.              *     * ...
Read more

getting close to full time

Image
this weekend just passed saw us have Harry over again and hopefully and it will be his last "visit" before permanent care next weekend.   things went well,  on the morning of his arrival we shot of and bought sausages and fresh bread which we barbequed for lunch. and apart from only having spicy barbeque sauce instead of plain tomato, it went down well.     we later bought a life jacket and fishing rod. the fishing was lousy but he has a swim in the rover at Morpeth.   that evening we hung out,  Mia was away but it gave Joe and harry time to play computer games.  the following morning Harry reckoned it was his first sleep-in for five years.  that may have been an exaggeration, but it clearly demonstrated how relaxed and happy he was.   today's task was to go sailing and we did.  the bay was lively with big winds and tide flows,  so we solved under main alone.  as usual Harry wanted to control eve...
Read more

getting the ship:s papers

Image
After motoring to the beautiful Clareville Beach, I found the waters calm and silky dark. Slow skidding cumulus that reeked of showers, hung without menace.  The lovely Barry Marshall (previous owner) arrived with a bag of ship's papers which provided a potted history, receipts, manuals and registrations. Generously, he also passed on a porta potti, boat hook, auto bilge pump, two headsails and a spinnaker. The headsails felt heavy and crisp, were labelled North Sails and are possibly unused.  I also became the caretaker of the yellow surf ski. I'd seen Barry, who paddled across Bass Strait calmly paddle this as a tender and as he told me the lock code, extolled it's virtues and how easy it was "to stand on to get onboard ". Of course I couldn't wait to try out the new tender in order to check on on Jack Sprat  so off we went with se new chain plate fittings and little else. As we arrived at the gunnel Barry's words came to mind as I shuffled and jerked, g...
Read more