Devipravaha -

Just on the beach with this song playing

The Welsh are a bit windswept and are sitting either side of me

Both leaning in like the Welsh do

Thank You

 This video is a thank you to you my followers 

It’s sweet natured and emotional and good

Just like most of your comments of support over the past three years

My qualification is so much more than just a potential change of career

It signifies a challenge and a personal growth which has challenged my low self esteem and grief after divorce.

I have grown as a professional and as a person through my study and supervision and personal therapy and

I have seen and accepted holes in my own psychi and have finally learned to be kinder to myself.

  

I have worth and I like myself so much more than I did when I felt alone, and unloved and a failure.

Thank you , readers for your loyalty 

It means a great deal and has gone a long way

The choir above is a force for good

It’s kindness mirrors yours here

Thank u again

The Windmills of your mind.

 I’m working at the hospice all day today

Later I will get my overall grade for my Counselling Cert

And already I’ve had messages of support from my supervisor, my personal counsellor and my peers…

Today the University Board pass our portfolios

And After Three long years 

I am suddenly, at 63, a trained counsellor!🩷

 👨🏼‍🎓and I can own the feeling that I’m incredibly proud of my achievement 

Hey fucking ho!

Cap n gown 

Go figure

Wild Flowers

 The Trelawnyd Community Association planted a strip of land by the community orchard with wild flowers a while back.

I took a look at it today in the drab weather

It looks lovely

And if you have a novelty veg or fruit photo please send it to jgsheffield@icloud.com

Polly and Zombies

 The panacea to a bad day is friends, food and cinema

I ticked every box today.

I met my friend Polly for brunch at Bryn Williams (she chased me yesterday and seemed to just know I needed her company today)

Proper coffee, eggs Benedict and a good chatter and boy did I feel better. 

Balance in an unbalanced week.

I came home, hung washing on the garden bushes then took Trendy Carol’s hubby to his hospital appointment 

This afternoon I went to the Picturehouse to see Jimmy Boyle’s Twenty Eight Years Later which I enjoyed in part.  

The infected have now evolved into odd moving naked cavemen types led by alpha males with huge penises

Not exactly The Walking Dead but an interesting and impressive twist 

This story is a coming of age story of twelve year old survivor Spike ( an impressive Alfie Williams) and is full of Boyle’s cinematic tricks and signature overbearing soundtrack 

Not a bag of laughs but my touchstone ( a dark comfortable afternoon cinema visit ) has calmed my day

On the way home I noticed that the flower meadow that was planted by the TCA has bloomed underneath the community orchard.

I will photograph it tomorrow 

Thought

 I’ve seen too many sad things today

Hard Hearted Bastard

 I was buggered yesterday. 

The acuity rating of our patients is high, which essentially means they are complex and need a great deal of nurse intervention 

The upside of this is that you are busy and stimulated 

The downside is that your feet ache when you get home.

I so needed Dorothy’s foot massage tongue last night

I soaked my feet in a washing up bowl of hot soapy water instead.

Gin and tonic in hand.

I woke late today, it was nearly eleven 

I walked the Welsh and treated them with some cooked ham 

And enjoyed the face Mary always pulls when she’s eating something delicious

I had a Facebook message from a guy I didn’t recognise this morning too.

It was the son of one of my old spinal Injury patients I’d nursed back in 1998 or so

Her name was Julia and I remember her once wheeling herself into my office to inform me that I was 

A hard hearted bastard! 

“ I’ve been called worse “ I shot back 

“I bet you fucking have “ she replied over her shoulder

Julia was a patient we would now describe as challenging

Then I would have described her as a pain in the arse

But I sort of liked her, despite her ability to be able to exasperate even the most pious of nuns.

Julia’s son messaged me with the news that his mother had died at the age of 77

She was herself to the end, he wrote, and even called her Intensive Care Consultant a Cu*t before she succumbed to her illness.

That sounded like the julia I remembered, the middle aged Rotherham woman who would give the young male paraplegics a run for their money any day, with a potty mouth and with a respect for no one she hadn’t tested herself.

She was a terrier of a woman, spiky, earthy some would say common. A product of a hard upbringing and a life of tragedy.  

But when Julia left the Spinal Injury Unit she left me a signed paperback book she had read whilst on bedrest

It was Going Gently by David Nobbs. 

I still have it somewhere

On the front page she had written with love from Julia, you gave me my life back

And I replied to her son’s message with this very story

For Good - Wicked -

I’m working all day today 🤪

Trendy Carol’s hubby has the Welsh yet again 🩷

And with the  Wicked sequel due out very soon ,

I thought I’d play you this song.

I saw Wicked The Musical in San Francisco and it was truly forgettable , 

But I did remember this one duet from the second half with some affection.

In the hospice this song features in many pre death organised funerals . 

It’s often there to celebrate a certain relationship , invariably a friendship 

That is treasured

And I remember one patient sharing with me that the phrase “ handprint on my heart” was so painfully appropriate to them that it brought tears to my eyes.

We all have that special person that was a force for good in our lives. Wicked’s strength is the chemistry between Elphaba and Galinda.and thats why this song has untouchable power about it

We can all reach out mentally and recognise that love

It’s a love that keeps us all going