I have been a professional social worker since 1987, and received my Masters degree in Social Work in NYC in 1991. My privileged exposure to "grassroots" social work started in NYC, working with homebound seniors, and through the years has expanded to hospice and palliative care. My career allows me to see the bigger picture in life, and for that, I am grateful and humbled. I have been gifted in witnessing the raw beauty, resilience, and integrity of the many people I have served. My blog will be a mix of stories, experiences, and characters that reverberate with me; some as a result of my social work and the lessons found. At other times, I may just share a thought or a moment, with no focused purpose. Free falling...it's a good thing.
“It's the action, not the fruit of the action, that's important. You have to do the right thing. It may not be in your power, may not be in your time, that there'll be any fruit. But that doesn't mean you stop doing the right thing. You may never know what results come from your action. But if you do nothing, there will be no result.”
“Teamwork is the ability to work together toward a common vision. The ability to direct individual accomplishments toward organizational objectives. It is the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results.”
Andrew Carnegie
We still believe and hope...
We will never stop trying...
Our purpose and
our dedication
to this work
depends on this...
photo by grassrootsmsw
"The Gap Fire"
Goleta, CA 2008
“We are here to awaken from the illusion of our separateness....”
Thich Nhat Hanh
It always amazes me that it often requires a large scale disaster, to bring people together...911, Katrina, fires, floods, earthquakes...why do we wait to hold, honor, and stand united until there is catastrophe?
We are all here on this place, we call Earth...we all experience moments of joy, loss, heart ache, love, and everything in between. Owning our individuality is important, but holding on to our "separateness" can divide us.
Coexist...can we? Regardless of our individualness? I think each of us can...I think each of us should...with or without disaster. Connectedness and understanding, is, after all, the innate need of all human beings.'
Coexisting, with compassion and openness, to all that is known and known...I dare everyone to just try.
“The most important thing in life is your family. There are days you love them, and others you don't, but in the end they're the people you always come home to. Sometimes it's the family you're born into and sometimes it's the one you make for yourself.”
“Anytime we see systems in apparent chaos, our training urges us to interfere, to stabilize and shore things up. But if we can trust the workings of chaos, we will see that the dominant shape of our organizations can be maintained if we retain clarity about the purpose and direction of the organization. If we succeed in maintaining focus, rather than hands-on control, we also create the flexibility and responsiveness that every organization craves. What leaders are called upon to do in a chaotic world is to shape their organizations through concepts, not through elaborate rules or structures.”
“Nothing happens in the quantum world without something encountering something else. Nothing is independent of the relationships that occur. I am constantly creating the world - evoking it, not discovering it - as I participate in all its many interactions. This is a world of process, not a world of things.”
"This fundamental truth of the self can be realized only if the individual is willing and courageous enough to follow to some natural conclusion,
this moment of experience, this facing the unknown,
and participating with the total commitment of the self.
Such expression, such passion for life may emerge in written, spoken, graphic or aesthetic forms in relation or in isolation; in I-Thou encounters; and in silent, inner experience.
A compassionate willingness is required - as is the courage to live before the fact, before the understanding, before any rational support or certainty, to live the moment to its natural peak and conclusion, and to accept with dignity whatever joy, grief, misfortune, or unexpectedness occurs."
“The family. We were a strange little band of characters trudging through life sharing diseases and toothpaste, coveting one another's desserts, hiding shampoo, borrowing money, locking each other out of our rooms, inflicting pain and kissing to heal it in the same instant, loving, laughing, defending, and trying to figure out the common thread that bound us all together.”
Erma Bombeck
After a week of visits from special family members, I am a mix of bittersweet emotions... I feel so fortunate to be part of a family that remains connected despite distance of continents...we can always start where we left off; we laugh and retell stories we have heard many times over; we accept and embrace one another, even knowing the worst, and we know how to care for one another without words. It is this deep connection that always makes the 'goodbyes' that much harder...a quiet sense of loss, a full heart of gratitude, and a hopeful anticipation for their next visit.
“To be playful is not to be trivial or frivolous, or to act as though nothing of consequence will happen. On the contrary, when we are playful with each other we relate as free persons, and the relationship is open to surprise; everything that happens is of consequence. It is, in fact, seriousness that closes itself to consequence, for seriousness is a dread of the unpredictable outcome of open possibility. To be serious is to press for a specified conclusion. To be playful is to allow for possibility whatever the cost to oneself.”
James Carse
Play with a full heart, Love with integrity and truth, Laugh deep belly laughs.
Hold onto your truths' and own them, but try to let the lightness in... the balance we all need.
"When we are tired, we are attacked by ideas we conquered long ago."
Friedrich Nietzsche
Being a pioneer in a rigid and static system constantly requires energy, endurance, and an unswerving commitment to change.
Despite a dedicated belief and internal honor system, the uphill battle often induces feelings of exhaustion...a need for a 'time out' and a heavy exhaled yawn.
Yawn, roll over, hibernate, rest. Regenerate.
The goals and purposes remain, but can only be addressed when we have stopped to breathe, rejuvenate, and reassemble the game plan.
Yawn and rest...yawn and rest...
There is still climbing to be done and aspirations to be reached.
"Let go of your attachment to being right, and suddenly your mind is more open. You're able to benefit from the unique viewpoints of others, without being crippled by your own judgment."
“The greatest stories are those that resonate our beginnings and intuit our endings, our mysterious origins and our numinous destinies, and dissolve them both into one.”
Ben Okri
Allow for the unfurling... no planning or mapping. Just, pure, organic, blending... of all that is, was and may be...
it’s what we all carry with us on this trip we take,
and we owe it to each other to respect our stories
and learn from them.”
William Carlos Williams
I have been a professional social worker for 17 years. Sometimes I have received praise and at other times I have been given constructive criticism. While I remain open to feedback and insight, my goal and purpose in this work has been to try the best I can to make a positive difference...a difference for others'...completely removed from self need or interest. I do this work because I was raised to see and believe that this is just the right thing to do...to give back, for no other reason than to give back.
The greatest compliment I have ever received over all these years came yesterday, from a respected colleague, at a staff retreat..."You are the keeper of stories. Thank you."
If I never did another day of social work, I would hold this comment as the highest compliment and feel that I had accomplished the deepest truth of what social work is. The greatest honor in the world is when someone offers to even share a glimpse of their narrative. With gratitude I try to hold each and every story, attempting and yearning to see the beauty, integrity and value behind the story tellers' STORY.
May I always be granted the privilege of hearing, learning, and holding the stories...
photo by grassrootsmsw NYC, 76th Street Deli "Eddie and Madison" 1993
“You come to New York to find the ambiance that will evoke your best. You do not necessarily know precisely what that might be, but you come to New York to discover it.”
Dr. James Hillman
The corner delis/bodegas in NYC are their own institutions with dynamics I have never seen or experienced before. Mohammed, Eddie, Manu, and Jimmie were my corner deli men. Not only did they know my morning coffee needs' (light, no sugar), every morning, they also remembered to include bacon or a bagel for my faithful dog Madison...each and every day.
The above photo is Halloween in 1993. All the dog owners' in the neighborhood "dressed" their dogs in costume. Being originally from California, Madison was dressed as a hippy/'Dead head.' The back of his t-shirt said: "Peace, Love and Hemp."
Madison's reward for best costume...extra bacon from his beloved deli man, Eddie. My reward: Discovering the fortune and fate that brought me to NYC and leaving with me, forever, appreciation for this city of paradox and truth...all in one...
photo by grassrootsmsw Roger Waters Concert The Berlin Wall, 1990
“Greater than scene is situation. Greater than situation is implication. Greater than all of these is a single, entire human being, who will never be confined in any frame.”