Friday, October 3, 2014
Today is the day that Germany celebrates Der Tag der Deutschen Einheit. Germany celebrates its reunification as a public holiday on October 3rd each year. I can still remember the collapse of communism as if it had occurred last year. It has been nearly twenty-five years since the Berlin Wall fell on November 9, 1989! I haven't yet surfed around on the Internet to follow the ways in which my fellow Germans have been celebrating today but I hope to do so later today.
German reunification in 1990 ended a geopolitical separation between the former West Germany and East Germany that had endured since the two states were created out of the devastated German landscape at the end of World War II...some forty-five years earlier. I never experienced East Germany during its existence. My first visit to Berlin took place in 2002. I visited Checkpoint Charlie and tried to take in a bit of the immense history that can be found in Berlin. I again visited Berlin during my trip to Germany in May, 2013. Given the special significance of this day in German history it is a fitting backdrop for the focus of my blog today. Today I am writing about the not inconsequential topic of restoring faith and trust. Such restoration is a necessary step in individual and collective healing.
I had a productive meeting yesterday. My meeting was with my vocational rehabilitation counselor and my contact person at Kelly Services. Kelly Services has placed me in a number of positions within the Allina Health System during the last six months. I have enjoyed working for Allina Health. I can imagine possibilities in which I could find a fulfilling career within the system. But I am also looking elsewhere. I believe it very wise to keep my options very open during this amazing time in my life.
I feel so happy and hopeful today in part due to how the meeting unfolded yesterday. I had held some fear that disclosing my health diagnosis to my employer could place me at heightened risk of discrimination in future opportunities. Before I proceed further in my writing I feel I have an ethical responsibility to make it clear that nothing in my past working history with Kelly Services led me to believe that I might experience discrimination. Of the varied contractual employment agencies I have worked with over the years I have been most pleased with the opportunities I have been able to find through Kelly Services. I expect that my viewership of my blog will continue to grow in the coming months. I thus want to be responsible and thus share correct information and informed opinions. I find it a bit sad that maintaining a high standard of conduct seems to be genuinely counter-cultural in the United States these days. Respectable journalism in this nation seems to be a lost art.
My meeting went better than the worst scenarios that played through my mind prior to the meeting itself. This was not surprising actually. I am still learning to be a more optimistic person. I think it correct to say that being optimistic about life and the future seems like an unreasonable stretch for many people who are recovering from trauma. When life features one disappointment after another after another it becomes easier to give up trying and hoping. Despair is easier than effort and commitment.
I actually have a number of interviews next week. I am excited about all of them. And even more important I am quite excited about my whole life now! And being excited about my life and my future possibilities was not something I typically felt in earlier moments of my life.
Deep healing is possible and, perhaps it may sound daring to say, even inevitable if you create a sufficient network of support and commit to your process of recovery.
Post Script
Fifty Day Challenge, Day #8
Healthy things I am doing today:
Today is the day that Germany celebrates Der Tag der Deutschen Einheit. Germany celebrates its reunification as a public holiday on October 3rd each year. I can still remember the collapse of communism as if it had occurred last year. It has been nearly twenty-five years since the Berlin Wall fell on November 9, 1989! I haven't yet surfed around on the Internet to follow the ways in which my fellow Germans have been celebrating today but I hope to do so later today.
German reunification in 1990 ended a geopolitical separation between the former West Germany and East Germany that had endured since the two states were created out of the devastated German landscape at the end of World War II...some forty-five years earlier. I never experienced East Germany during its existence. My first visit to Berlin took place in 2002. I visited Checkpoint Charlie and tried to take in a bit of the immense history that can be found in Berlin. I again visited Berlin during my trip to Germany in May, 2013. Given the special significance of this day in German history it is a fitting backdrop for the focus of my blog today. Today I am writing about the not inconsequential topic of restoring faith and trust. Such restoration is a necessary step in individual and collective healing.
I had a productive meeting yesterday. My meeting was with my vocational rehabilitation counselor and my contact person at Kelly Services. Kelly Services has placed me in a number of positions within the Allina Health System during the last six months. I have enjoyed working for Allina Health. I can imagine possibilities in which I could find a fulfilling career within the system. But I am also looking elsewhere. I believe it very wise to keep my options very open during this amazing time in my life.
I feel so happy and hopeful today in part due to how the meeting unfolded yesterday. I had held some fear that disclosing my health diagnosis to my employer could place me at heightened risk of discrimination in future opportunities. Before I proceed further in my writing I feel I have an ethical responsibility to make it clear that nothing in my past working history with Kelly Services led me to believe that I might experience discrimination. Of the varied contractual employment agencies I have worked with over the years I have been most pleased with the opportunities I have been able to find through Kelly Services. I expect that my viewership of my blog will continue to grow in the coming months. I thus want to be responsible and thus share correct information and informed opinions. I find it a bit sad that maintaining a high standard of conduct seems to be genuinely counter-cultural in the United States these days. Respectable journalism in this nation seems to be a lost art.
My meeting went better than the worst scenarios that played through my mind prior to the meeting itself. This was not surprising actually. I am still learning to be a more optimistic person. I think it correct to say that being optimistic about life and the future seems like an unreasonable stretch for many people who are recovering from trauma. When life features one disappointment after another after another it becomes easier to give up trying and hoping. Despair is easier than effort and commitment.
I actually have a number of interviews next week. I am excited about all of them. And even more important I am quite excited about my whole life now! And being excited about my life and my future possibilities was not something I typically felt in earlier moments of my life.
Deep healing is possible and, perhaps it may sound daring to say, even inevitable if you create a sufficient network of support and commit to your process of recovery.
Post Script
Fifty Day Challenge, Day #8
Healthy things I am doing today:
- I met with my personal trainer this morning...and then did an additional workout thereafter
- I am meeting a friend for lunch
- I am taking note of all the blessings in my life for which I am grateful
- I am allowing myself to dream a bigger, brighter future
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