So, a while ago, I received an e-mail to say that this blog had been voted onto this list for Scottish blogs…
I know nothing about the organisation. Nor who gets to vote. Nor how many blogs there are in Scotland.
But hey, it looks pretty.
A bit like winning third prize for carrots at the fruit and veg show. So I decided to pin it on…
Oh dear.
Tomorrow I return to work for a few days. It is that rather difficult period within social work between Christmas and New Year, and I will be the only manager covering all sorts of things beyond my usual mental health remit. It may be quiet. It may be manic.
Always a shock to system.
To this list (for rather too much of the time) add ‘Social work management’!
In order to cheer myself up, I went searching for other peoples feelings about work, and discovered this TED lecture…
Hmmm- at this point, I think castrating lambs with your teeth has it’s attraction…
But then again, what I do has value. I do my best to make a difference, and to be graceful and respectful to those who work with/for me (and sometimes I even manage to do this!)
And because I work, I have a house and other resources that enable me to serve the Kingdom, and to give my kids a start in life that I did not have.
So I will go in tomorrow, reluctantly perhaps, but with a smile.
I plan to give the office a good sort out.
Bare those teeth- and bite!
So, another Christmas season comes and goes. We have had a lovely time, I hope you have too. Those moments of delight on the kids faces…
We have had Michaela’s Mum and Step-Father here this Christmas, which has been great as Robert has not been well. They had an epic journey up from Derbyshire- a 5 hour train journey became a 10 hour one, with cancelled trains and all sorts of problems because of the snow.
Rather spoiling the angelic impression (but still very funny) Emily decided to write ‘SPLAT’ in the snow- perhaps indicating a fallen snow angel!
So it snowed!
We have had the mandatory snow ball fight (I won) and discovered that our new driveway makes for a rather fast scary sledge ride.
I went down first, and the end was not dignified!
Ahhhhhhh- that’s me.
Off work for a week.
And boy was I ever ready. I had a day from hell yesterday, topped of with a migraine in the evening. I know myself well enough to understand when I need headspace on my own, and when I need to be amongst people.
But the fact is, to a various degree, we all need both. In particular, we all need to be with people who are willing to love and accept us as we are- in short, we all need mates. It is a physical, spiritual and emotional pull on the core of us.
I have enjoyed these adverts recently- and smiled ruefully- as a result of awareness of my own frequent failings, and the pain I have sometimes felt through a perception of others failing me…
And that’s about it, friends. Be cheerful. Keep things in good repair. Keep your spirits up. Think in harmony. Be agreeable. Do all that, and the God of love and peace will be with you for sure. Greet one another with a holy embrace. All the brothers and sisters here say hello.
2 Corinthians 13:10-12
I’m not an optimist, but I am a prisoner of hope…
Archbishop Desmond Tutu
Just back from a day out in the cold celebrating Advent whilst people buy Christmas trees. Tired but happy…
Here are a few pics-
Sometimes I weep at what we are, and what we become.
The very heart of who we are, and the meaning we bring to our time spent in this fragile human tent- nothing brings this home more to us than becoming old. Facing the certainty of death.
We live in an aging population. I spend a lot of my time now chairing conferences where consideration is being given to the use of the Scottish Adults With Incapacity Act to enable the on going care of people who no longer have the capacity to make decisions for themselves. Most of these conferences relate to people who are older, and have a diagnosis of some form of dementia.
A news article last week brought me up sharp.It concerned a report
The medical care that we provide our oldest and most vulnerable people with at the end of their lives is killing around 1800 people a year.
Psychiatric drug prescribed to moderate behaviour and agitation kills people.
Only around 36,000 of the 180,000 people currently on the drugs in the UK are getting any benefit from them, the report said, leaving 144,000 people taking them unnecessarily.
This story was slipped into the pool of news with barely a ripple. No outcry. No calls for investigation. No heads on the chopping block. Just move on to another story… more celebrity drivel, or a bit of political scandal about a moat and a dodgy expenses claim.
How we look after our older people with dignity and compassion is one of the greatest challenges facing our generation in this country. Numbers of people experiencing dementia are set to double in the next 20 years. The percentage of the population of some towns (particularly seaside towns like mine) who have this difficulty will be very difficult for services to provide adequate care for.
At the same time, most health and social care budgets are already overspent, and likely to experience cuts in real terms.
I watched this film today, hence the reference to tears at the beginning of this post.
It is a beautiful film, full of tender care, hope and yearning, along with such sadness and loss.
And running through the middle of it all is music- the art that gives our lives meaning, even when almost all other things have been stripped away…
Hallelujah.
Vodpod videos no longer available.
Well- not quite.
But I think we may well reach the record mumber of sky lanterns ever released at one time in Dunoon this weekend.
The real world record was set below Jakarta- below. They set off more than 10,000. Which is about as many people who live in Dunoon- so perhaps we have a chance.
By the way they are falling from the sky in flame in this clip, I assume that these lanterns were not fireproofed!
this fragile tent 