Talking of Dreams ....

I am sitting in yet another airport, this time Newcastle; I think I have flown in and out of most of the UK’s airports now. This time there is 3 inches of snow on the ground having had a steady morning of snow. The runway is currently closed whilst the snow ploughs work their magic I hope! I am flying to Cardiff to work in Port Talbot tomorrow.

We have been called to the boarding gate, but it’s started to snow heavily again.

Ron is looking after the kids this week, all of them won races, Frankie wants to be an Olympic swimming champion so who knows. Talking of dreams those of you who have been on courses with me will know my dream of becoming a professional Jazz singer, this weekend I was a participant in a wonderful weekend singing workshop with Sophie Bancroft and Madeleine Eastman from America. It was interesting being a pupil for a change and gave me time to reflect on both facilitating skills and also my future. By the end of the first day after making a hash of my song I had talked myself into giving up, going back to just singing for fun, that I just didn’t have the commitment, time, talent, energy to go forward, but after an enjoyable 2nd morning thanks to both tutors warm encouraging approach I realised that I was talking myself down, that if I really wanted to do this I could but I had to find a way of putting a 100% commitment into it.

The afternoon we performed & I sang with a fantastic musician just playing bass, it was wonderful to play at blending my voice into a musical alliance with the double bass & experiment. I am hooked again have bought some training cd’s on learning some jazz standards properly and I am going to continue taking my dream forward. I have done a PATH in my head and have an idea where I am going, it is not going to be straight forward but so what –isn’t this what recovery is all about the excitement, of anticipation of what is possible of new beginnings, of nurturing newly found talents, of believing in yourself.

I have Ron’s full support what else could I need.

Meanwhile Ron is busy painting the kitchen ,and having morning coffee with the group of friends he has made up in Ness, no doubt contemplating how he wants his future to unfold.

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Ron Coleman and Karen Taylor have an international reputation as speakers and authors. They are the directors of ‘Working to Recovery Limited’ an innovative international consultancy, training and publishing company with a cutting edge approach to supporting and improving mental health provision.

Pinky, Percy and Spotty ....

We now have 3 little pigs called Pinky Percy & Spotty named by Francesca, they are settling in well, being particularly noisy at feed times. The kittens are out of sorts as they were spayed last week & Scooby our runaway pup has been castrated , hoping it will calm him down a bit so a very expensive week at the vets.

I ran 2 workshops in Glasgow last week although there was only a small group there was lots of discussion and a lovely reflective atmosphere. Enjoyed 2 fabulous gigs at Celtic Connections but gave the late night review a wide berth this year as Ron & I didn’t have the energy to stay up to 5am.

This week Ron had a very emotional day at the male survivor conference in Edinburgh at last recognition of the emotional & mental damage abuse does to a person with full government support in Scotland for specific services for survivors hopefully young people will not have to suffer the fate that Ron and many others had with in our mental health services which in the past have denied the importance of abuse when diagnosing & mis-diagnosing. Ron also called for the churches to set up a fund to help pay for the services that are to be provided.

Next day he was back teaching student nurses at Caledonian university, time for some fun & Banter. He received a lovely e-mail from one of the students saying how much the group had enjoyed the lecture and that it had re-inspired them in their quest to be qualified mental health nurses, I noticed a tear in his eye when he read this, indeed there was one in mine, after all isn’t this the passion & inspiration we want to create when we are out there travelling miles ,tired & home sick but realising we are making a difference.

I am at Stornoway airport again flying out to enjoy a jazz singing weekend before I embark on work in Durham & Port Talbot.

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Ron Coleman and Karen Taylor have an international reputation as speakers and authors. They are the directors of ‘Working to Recovery Limited’ an innovative international consultancy, training and publishing company with a cutting edge approach to supporting and improving mental health provision.