November 26, 2006

Refreshing

It's refreshing like the other side of the pillow...

The first (and probably the only) time I read that sentence, I felt betrayed. I honestly thought that I was the only one who knew the refreshing experience of pillow-turnover. It was a violation!!! But anyway, I'm like, totally over it.

What's refreshing is that I've been a "Youth Care Worker" for six and a half months now, and I still really like my job. I look forward to going to work. On the walk to work I find myself feeling rather energetic and excited to be going to work. This seems unnatural! In the last job I had (that and my current one have been my only jobs with which "career" can be associated), I was ready to quit by month one. This is all very new territory for me.

The flip side is I don't see myself working in this position for 10-15-20 years, though practically I could. I'm not the greatest in the world, but I'm not an idiot who would do something to get myself fired... Anyway, I'm a part of a system that makes the government the parent. And I don't know if you've payed your taxes lately, but the government really isn't the best "entity" to be raising children. They end up suffering from "rootlessness" and you really can't know the consequences of that unless you've felt a little of it yourself. No roots. No family, no education, no awareness of self. Nada. You are tied down only by your dependence on a system that doesn't really care about you. Over 60% of the 66 000 kids in care in Canada will end up homeless for some period of their lives. That's crazy! I saw a documentary tonight on four youth who were in care called "Wards of the Crown". One quote was, "Love is inappropriate in a group home". And it's so true.

But then what should I do? I don't want to be a social worker, because that's more of the same. I don't want to be a politician, because that's even worse. I'm also not ready to go back to school. I had hot flashes just thinking about writing another paper...

*Interlude*

Ahem... So I had other things to share, but I forget them now. Probably something boring about some TV show I watched... But anyway, on to something boring about a TV show I saw... Anyone see "The Monastery" on TLC? I watched the first few episodes "faithfully", and was quite incensed that the last show suffered a scheduling change and I missed it. So, it being 5am and me at work I was looking around the website, reading enlightening things on message boards.

In short, the series is over and they're not going to replay it, but it made my brain move. It also reminded me of that retreat we did a couple of years ago for, "History and Practice of Christian Spirituality", and how I wish we could do that again.

Aside: Remember when we were trying to meditate and Sam forgot to open the flue on the fireplace and nearly killed us all because we were all being deep and not opening our eyes?

Refreshing.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

That was such an awesome retreat, I always think about it and how I wish we could do it again. I've never heard of that Monastery show, too bad, I probably would have liked it. Maybe i'll catch some reruns.

Shannon Skafte said...

I loved that retreat - - SIgh the smoke inhalation was deep and meaningful.

i have never heard of this monastery show... but i'm sure i would have liked it.

Sigh.

so i'm tryign to convinve David to Take me to the big city on Dec. 08 ... in the afternoon and for the evening..

does this work for you?

Anonymous said...

Evelyn, After writting on my blog I thought I would check yours out. It's refreshing to read a blog where someone else knows the life of a Youth Care Worker. It's very hard to discribe to others. Are you full time?? Anyways it was nice hearing from you

Unknown said...

hi loralee!

I'm what they call permanent part-time, but I work an average of 48 hours a week since we're forever in need of shift coverage... We're unionized, so competition for full-time positions is pretty tricky, but I'm hoping to get that in a year or so.

thanks for stopping by!

Emily said...

Evelyn, the refreshing cool of a pillow turnover is one of the best events in the night. Lately there have been more middle-of-the-night events in my life and pillow turnovers are still very very high on my list.
I used to get mad when I was a kid that you really only get one good pillow turnover a night, after that the other side is already warmed and drooled on.
Now that I am (temporarily) using a queen sized bed to myself I save the extra pillow to glean double the pillow turnovers in a night!
I'm weird I know