When I was growing up, my parents would remind us that we had an obligation as human beings to be of service to others. I grew up with one parent or another being on this board, or delivering that meal, or helping out this person with their taxes, or driving somebody to the doctor.
When I went to undergraduate school at the U of Manitoba, one of my profs, Archie, would remind us that many had given freely of themselves to help us become trained, and it was a professional and ethical and human obligation to use our skills and abilities for the greater good in society. I think she probably slipped the concept of “social justice” in there somewhere too…and it stuck.
When I went to graduate school, there was this thing called a “discernment meeting”…where one’s profs, student colleagues, and clinical supervisors, and a significant friend or two gathered for a meeting to talk about me to me. They affirmed me, challenged me, inspired me and provided me with a good deal of wisdom of their experience of me. In a line I will never forget, one of my professors said, “Carolyn, to whom much is given, much is required….and you have been given much.”
Gulp.
They saw something in me…and challenged me not to waste it.
But life gets busy and full and hard. I was on the Board of Director’s for our professional association provincially, but had to resign part way through because of a family crises that was ongoing. I helped out bringing new moms meals when friends of mine brought home babies from the hospital or by adoption, was on a different board of directors for a time, and would do the odd thing here and there for someone who needed help but not regularly.
But I was busy raising a family. And growing a counselling practice. And teaching a fair bit. Y’know how a person can start out with ideals, but sometimes they get kinda lost along the way…well, yep…happened to me.
It didn’t feel like there was a lot of room to be of service to others.
That didn’t mean I didn’t feel the pull to help others…by this point, it had been fairly deeply engrained in me by so many different sources, it sorta felt not quite right to be so uninvolved in regular service of some kind.
But I was still feeling fairly “maxed out” and was puzzlin’ on how to do something that was so fundamentally important to me…and was further reinforced by my reading. I know that when people give, their own lives become enriched. We are created to help others out.
I was worried that I was the one being impoverished by giving so little.
So…I asked around a bit…and found a way to make it work. The University of Manitoba School of Occupational Therapy are GREAT folk…who have a quirky sense of openness for adventure–for thinking ‘outside the box’.
So…what we came up with was this: I supervise Occupational Therapy students in their final year of school as they do a placement at various places like Siloam Mission, Anna’s House, and Red Road Lodge. They need to operate under an Occupational Therapist’s license, and they need to have a chance to think about what they are doing as a budding Occupational Therapist…so I meet with them regularly to poke at their thinking and their ideas, and brainstorm with them some.
If there’s one thing I know how to do, it’s ask questions to make people think. It uses one of the best parts of me to help students. And the students work in a place that, as a non-profit agency, very much needs their services for real-life real-need projects. And the students rub shoulders with great folk whose lives have taken a nasty turn, had challenges that the rest of us can’t imagine, or simply need some support from someone who cares.
The agency wins. The students win. The university wins. And certainly not least, I win.
The students come in with stories that challenge and inspire me of folks they are talking with. Folks facing significant challenges. Staff working in these agencies that love their work and love the people that they can learn from. The stories let me hear of a world I don’t get to hear as often from my suburban counselling office…and I grow.
And I am inspired.
And I am challenged.
And I am the person who is ultimately privileged in that it feels that I become a better person (well, except when I have to fill out reams of paperwork evaluations…then I’m a person struggling not to procrastinate and cuss, but I digress)
This last week, as the video above indicates, two of the students that I have been working with were featured in The Steinbach Online edition, looking at the project that they are implementing. All four of the students I have this summer are taking risks, working hard, thinking harder, and learning to effectively help people change their lives, and the lives of their children for the better.
And now, it’s online for many to see!
I love the front row seat that I get to watch students do so well. Thanx guys, for the privilege of hearing what you are doing, what the agencies you are working for are doing…I treasure the learning and value all the lessons you have taught me. (Shhhh…don’t tell the University…they think I’m the one that is doing the teaching, and you’re the ones doing the learning) 🙂
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