Time has taken on a strange quality in my life of late, and today it folded in on itself. Six years became 6 minutes. Six years ago I was shattered and broken dealing with the end of so much when my dear friend Aannsha who held such special place in my life also left on a grand adventure. She spent the next almost 6 years living on a yacht in the Mediterranean with her husband. Today, she stepped off the train after so long away and our six years apart vanished as we hugged each other and cried. We spent a wonderful day together mostly in my garden as if we did it everyday.
This meeting of my past and present is a recurrent theme of late. I finish my masters degree in 9 weeks with the official end date of November 17th - my old wedding anniversary. It feels like the perfect tying off of ends. Friends from before my marriage have reappeared unexpectedly. Aaron, who'd been my friend from when we were 7 until the end of high school where we lost contact suddenly appeared which was so lovely. To add to the synchronicity of his reappearance, he'd spent the last 6 years working with my ex husband (while we were married and through our end days), but was unaware of the connection. The partner of a new friend from uni worked for many years with my ex-husband's best friend. Strange how small the world is and how it links together.
Very soon a friend from my teens is coming to spend the weekend. He lives in South Australia and he and his cousin were boys I knew from visits to family there. We've not seen each other since we were 19, and his coming visit feels so much like time connecting my past and present yet again. He sent me this picture of me at 18, on the banks of the Murray River. We were skiing in the evening after work, and in some indefinable way the gift of this photo reconnected me with the girl I once was. So relaxed and happy, surrounded by friends and with good things before me. Just like now.
I've spent the year undertaking an internship as a counsellor working in Indigenous mental health. Early in first semester I was offered a job by the agency I'm interning at. Words cannot convey how much I love the work I do, the people I work with and the respect I have for the ethos of the organisation I work for. They have made space for me to take on a workload that suits me and to prioritise my health and self-care. I work with a diverse range of clients. Ages range from 9 -75 and I work with issues such as anxiety, domestic violence, homelessness, grief, schizophrenia, BPD, bullying, chronic health issues, substance use and abuse, and people who have suffered physical and psychological abuse in many forms. In my job as a counsellor so many connections are present as strings from all stages in my past draw together in the perfection of this role for me. My teaching career, my long period of illness, my art (I use art therapy), my Play Therapy training, my confronting experiences at the end of my marriage, and my training as a medical receptionist all blend to suit me perfectly to this position. Grateful beyond measure.
