The dubious pleasure

I am privileged to do the work I do. I feel this at a cellular level most days that I work with clients. I feel truly blessed to have found what feels to be my vocation. I have been able to train to do work I love, and that I feel confident that I am reasonably good at. In thinking about the relationship I have with my current career, I feel connected to my present purpose, and that feels tremendously important, providing me with both nourishment and reward.

But my work is not without its challenges. It is a great privilege to feel in touch with my talents and purpose, but not always such a pleasure. The stories I hear each and every week are often horrific. I derive enjoyment from my work, not from the content but from the process. I never cease to be amazed and delighted by the depths of human resilience and resource, as demonstrated to me by those who have survived, and continue to survive, their stories. I work with heroes, though many of them have yet to see an accurate reflection of themselves in the mirror that is this life.

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Table. Apple. Penny.

Whilst there were several places I might have been that morning, I wouldn't have been anywhere else. The practitioner from the Memory Service arrived promptly. I liked her instantly. Mum was nervous. I think I was a little, too. It's been a difficult year. "It's Friday, it's the fourteenth of December and I'm at home..." No problems there. CAMCOG, or the Cambridge Cognitive Examination is a thorough assessment tool used to assess the extent of extent of dementia, and to assess the level of cognitive impairment. The standardised measure assesses orientation, language, memory, praxis, attention, abstract thinking, perception and calculation. "Table. Apple. Penny." Three everyday items that were introduced at one point, and then referred to again later on. Again, Mum was able to recall each. I am reminded that the...

Glass half full? Glass half empty? Or perhaps the glass is broken

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Joan Miro: Emotional Art

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The Reward is the Journey

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