After staring across the bay at Blomidon all year long, it was great to get out and hike it yesterday. Gorgeous day, great company, breathtaking views. Awesome!
Also awesome is the fact that I am officially finished my Master's degree. Woo-hoo! Freedom at last. What an incredible, intense and significant experience though. I've made friends for life and I feel like I'm exactly where I should be (minus the now being unemployed part!)
I'll be setting up a career-related site soon. I'm not sure how much longer I'll keep this one up. I guess it depends on where I end up next. There might be another adventure in store for me yet.
You know your Dad is great when he says: "All I want for Father's Day is for you to finish your program--that would be the best gift." Awwww! That's why you're the best Dad.
Happy Father's Day!
PS - Yes, that is a plate of sausages in the second picture. The strangest things I miss about Japan -- like weird Tapas-style food.
Thank you for everything you do for us. For feeding us and
clothing us (even in those matching outfits when we were little). For teaching
us the value of being polite and having good manners. For making our home a
nice place to be with fresh baking and beautiful plants and gardens. For doing our
taxes every year. For being a little bit crazy and silly at times and knowing
when to laugh at yourself. For always knowing the right thing to say (or not to
say) when we get hurt. For helping us with our homework after you’ve had a long
day at work yourself. For letting us make (and learn from) our own mistakes.
For being the best person to cuddle with and hug after a long time away from
home.
"In the same way, each person, big or small, has a role to play in the world. As we start to really get to know others, as we begin to listen to each other's stories, things begin to change. We no longer judge each other according to concepts of power and knowledge or according to group identity, but according to these personal, heart-to-heart encounters. We begin the movement from exclusion to inclusion, from fear to trust, from closedness to openness, from judgment and prejudice to forgiveness and understanding. It is a movement of the heart." - Jean Vanier, Becoming Human
I spent the day at the Al Whittle again yesterday; our local Grandmother's Group put on a fundraiser for the Stephen Lewis Foundation. The event included a screening of the very moving film The Great Granny Revolution (the film's trailer is above), a wine and cheese social and some local musical talent. We sold out the event and everyone in the audience was in tears by the end of the screening -- if you get a chance to watch this film, do it!! I was inspired and compelled to do more.
With filmmaker Brenda Rooney (on the right) and my fabulous co-worker Jill at the event. And, in case you're wondering, you can be a grandmother at any age.
I joined this
group partially as a result of some research I did in the fall on the need to
provide psychosocial support to children affected by HIV/AIDS. The statistics
on these children shocked me. By the end of 2003, there were an estimated 143
million orphans in 93 developing countries. Fifteen million of those children
lost their parents due to AIDS and by 2010, that number is expected to jump to
25 million. Unfortunately, except in the rarest of cases, little has been done to offer these children psychosocial support.
How do these
children ever emotionally recover from the trauma of watching their parents
suffer deaths that are long, agonizing and often undignified? And what are the
long-term consequences of leaving a generation of child-headed households? The
assertion that “there is no such thing as an orphan in Africa” no longer rings
true (or at least it won’t for much longer) as the continent’s grandmothers,
who have recently been tasked with looking after their grandchildren due to the
AIDS-related deaths of their own children, continue to age and will
eventually die of natural attrition—leaving a generation of children to look
after themselves.
If we’re not compelled to move from an emotional standpoint,
we still cannot ignore the rational conclusion that the millions of children
growing up without parental love and guidance could turn into a large group of
dysfunctional adults with the potential to destabilize society—possibly on a
global scale. Regardless of
the reality that what happens on the other side of the world actually impacts
us all (go figure); I believe that as global citizens we have a responsibility
to act when we are called to help those in need, whether it be our next-door neighbour
or someone we have never met.
My own experience in Cambodia changed me, and as
a result, I hope I have the opportunity to do more work with children affected
by AIDS, possibly with one of the several organizations currently working
towards implementing psychosocial support programs for these children. At the very least I will
continue to volunteer at a grassroots level. The more I learn about people, the
more I’m convinced that we’re all the same—fundamentally perfect, but changed
for better or worse by the circumstances we are born into.
“When one part
of the human family is under siege, the privileged part of the human family
responds.” – Stephen Lewis
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