My Promise

I’m going to jump about a bit in this post. It’s been that kind of week and I’m working at doing some catching up, sorting out and settling down. My body memories seem to have taken me back a few decades to the time just prior to the birth of my Daughter when I was preparing for what was to come – the most major event of my life, changes that would alter me forever and that I could never forget or would want to forget. We have spent family time this last weekend in and around the place where my parents met, loved and conceived me. They have been very present in my thoughts, along with the memories I have of my Daughter’s connections to the area, some of which she has made for herself as an adult. This weekend she made new memories, totally different from the ones she had expected to make six months ago, but her decisions and direction will change the course of her life just as mine was changed the day she was born. It is as if our blood draws us to this place – it is where we immerse ourselves in the river of our lives, take the plunge, go with the flow…what you will……
There has been discussion in the household on the role of those who are involved in assisting others to make change, the paid professionals who should above all bring hope, but so rarely do. Psychiatry seems to be run by the book and by what drugs can be prescribed; psychologists don’t talk about feelings and counsellors can lack experience, training, skill and a sense of the big picture. Clients sometimes believe there is a magic wand which will in a short time make everything right. Change requires courage, imagination, determination, concentration, honesty, digging deep and doggedness. Sometimes the first task is to get real, to understand that there will be hard work, but to retain or achieve a sense of hope that change is possible.
Maybe some of you have read the popular The Wisdom of Passion in which Peter Wallman and Rachel Flowers list the qualities of passionate people. They are worth revisiting.
Passionate people -live by the words ‘to thine own self be true’
-live in the moment
-have clarity and know where their lives are heading
-are enthusiastic about their lives and don’t know ‘impossible’
-are fresh, calm, focused and in control of their lives
-are creative and innovative
-don’t worry what other people think about them
-are self-reliant and create their own happiness
-are not put off by problems; they know they’ll find a solution
-stay focused on the big picture
-don’t let limiting beliefs, fear of failure or old habits hold them back
We live in a hard, money-driven world where it is a joy to find those who are guided by their passionate beliefs and creativity. These are the people who help us to have a sane world where we can remember our connections, our place in the world – ‘we are the stars’ etc…….

And of course we can’t end this without letting Joni sing her song –

To end, Robert.J.Burrowes article on his promise – Apart from those children we kill every day, we sell many others into sexual slavery, we kidnap others to terrorise them into becoming child soldiers, we force others to work as slave labourers, in horrific conditions, in fields and factories (and buy the cheap products of their exploited labour as our latest ‘bargain’), and we condemn millions to live in poverty, homelessness and misery. We cause many children to be born with grotesque genetic deformities because we use horrific weapons, like those with depleted uranium, on their parents. We also inflict violence on children in many other forms, ranging from ‘ordinary’ domestic violence to genital mutilation.

My Promise To Children By Robert J. Burrowes.

Postscript: – another view of hope just posted – http://whatashrinkthinks.com/2013/11/11/pernicious-hope