Circumstances...
Good morning, All.
On this last day of June (mid-year is upon us) I encourage everyone to pause and look back, and assess your life in general. Many of you have expressed various lacks of completion of goals you set for yourselves and are left wondering how time got away from you. Others of you have expressed the realization that you set your goals too high, such that they were completely out of reach to begin with. I, too, missed several deadlines I set for myself but the reality of it is that life often fails to co-operate with the best of intentions.
Take heart, for all is no' lost. Mayhap it is time to reconsider what first appealed, and appeared to be the right direction to follow. For those of you who made New Year's resolutions, it has long been known that setting goals for the New Year is generally done without thorough and complete thought for all that those goals entail. I am no' alluding to things such as weight loss, a new look, etc. but to things of the nature that redirect our paths in life.
It is easy to blame various and sundry situations, even persons, for our failures but if one looks closely enough, one often finds 'self' stood in the way of accomplishment. Few of us are capable, or willing, to take responsibility for our perceived failures but only when one is able and willing to do so, will one be able to sort out the chaos. Certainly, there are extenuating circumstances that prevail, which one is unable to foresee, and which blocks one's path. As you already know, I ran into one such roadblock when my beloved spouse fell ill, out of the blue. For the first three months of the year I was wholly involved in caring for him until his passing, and the following three months, to date, I have been consumed with working to get my life back on track.
I am no' asking for pity by rehashing this but simply stating fact, as an example of how things can suddenly go awry. All of my goals for the year diminished in importance and now I am faced with having to reorder and restructure. And in doing so, I have discovered that certain of those are no longer important, others should have taked precedence in the order of things at the beginning, and still others must remain pending until such time that I can figure a way to accomplish them. Thus you get a picture of how chaos comes about.
Life, being what it is, provides some allowances, if only one pauses to seek them out. While no one of us knows when something might come about to throw us off track, for the most part, chaos does no' reign supreme unless one allows it to. I refuse to allow that to overwhelm me and so it is back to the drawing board, in a manner of speaking.
My family is and will ever be at the top of my list of priorities followed, closely, by my work in service to others. My love of writing is a hobby that I generally work into whatever free time I can manage and while that stands on the thresh-hold of becoming my livlihood, I am blessed in that I have the finances to see me through whatever time it takes me to get my novels published and up for sale. As it now stands, things are in the works; thanks to my most competant staff.
The point I wish to make here is this: One can allow unexpected circumstances to set one back so that goals can never be attained, or one can take the bad with the good and get on with the business of life. I am known for preaching that family should always come first and nothing will ever change that point of view; which leads me to the real crux of this posting. I have received many, many e-mails regarding children as being the 'culprits' that often stand in the way of achieving one's goals. Know this: children are no' culprits' or 'reasons' for failure. They are blessings; 'gifts' we are given and charged with caring for, and keeping safe. Ah, and you have figured out where I am going with this.
More and more, child-safety is becoming a less important situation. There are those who place the responsibility for their children in the hands of third parties and no' only expect but demand that those third parties carry out the duties and responsibilities that belong to the parent(s). Worse, some children are left to their own devices at a too early age, which in my estimation is unconscionable. No arguments for need to work, lack of time, the child's bad behavior, and the like, can absolve a parent(s) of their responsibility for their child or children. Like it or no', you birthed them and 'tis your responsibility to be their primary caretaker and first line of defense, regardless of whatever situation you find yourself in. Sound too tough? I mean to be.
I could go on and on about specific situations involving defenseless children, I have encountered, but 'twould be useless, as far as those children are concerned. The damage has already been done. Sadly, the majority of those children have either suffered irrepairable damage or are no longer alive. What enrages me is the number of parents who are wont to blame others for what happened to their children when it was their mistakes all along. There is no excuse that will ever absolve one of the guilt of failure to protect their children, at all costs.
While there are any number of terrible things that can befall a defenseless child, I will speak to those which most often involve my colleagues and myself. Children of any age are, by their very nature, curious. And while the majority of children we deal with are teenagers, who think they are ten feet tall and bulletproof, we also have dealings with many instances where children are very young. Before I continue, let me say that most certainly there are instances when even the best parenting skills canno' prevent some children from certain dangers no parent can foresee, nor protect against.
That said, we offer our assistance to as many children in harm's way, as we are able to. If we discover that the child fell in harm's way due to lack of proper parenting (and aye, it falls to us to determine that, on a case-by-case situation) we have ways and means of finding better placement for those children, if they survive. We have no qualms about forcing the issue where unstable homes are lacking, for there are so many good and willing people who have no child of their own and will gladly take on the responsibility. Have we been known to circumvent laws and agencies in the best interests of children? Aye, and without fear or guilt.
One of our most dedicated colleagues who works in the interest of children is the Warlock Gregory who, together with his spouse and adult children, will stop at nothing to accomplish whatever needs arise for those children. He and his family are most generous with their time and finances and over the years they have put together an astonishing network of concerned people who assist them. Gregory is a powerful individual to be reckoned with and we are blessed to have him and his family as colleagues and allies, to assist us. He is most notable for his charitable efforts on behalf of children and he will even brow-beat his friends and acquaintences into donating time, effort, and money for his causes.
Be that as it may, we are woefully short on help in every area of our endeavors. Recently, we have turned to bringing into our midst, Outsiders (ordinary folks, for lack of a better description), who have children's best interests at heart. You will hear from some of them, from time to time, for we believe their experiences and passions deserve to be made known. In future, 'tis our hope that our network of assistants will grow to meet our needs. 'Tis slow going, as we must be extremely careful of whom we bring among us; for their safety, as well as that of the children for whom we provide assistance.
I know there are many of you who will, unselfishly, offer your services but please understand that we canno' accept your offers by e-mail, as we have no' the time to wade through the background checks we require before we bring another on board. 'Tis a long and tedious process that no' only requires a lot of paperwork, but also private interviews with some of our staff, who have to make long treks to wherever. In time, we hope to establish a mailing address for that purpose but, again, we must take care it will no' lead back to you, or us, for obvious reasons.
In the interim, please be aware and always, always, if you see or know of a child in danger please report it to your local authorities. If you are concerned that the danger to the child is more than they can handle, or that they do no' respond then at that point e-mail me and I will endeavor to put someone in place to investigate the situation. While we canno' possibly respond to each and every situation, we do our best to cover as many situations as is possible. Sometimes we find we can remove the danger to the child (the perpetrator) before an attack occurs and thus save the child in that manner. Ponder and Blessed May You Be.
On this last day of June (mid-year is upon us) I encourage everyone to pause and look back, and assess your life in general. Many of you have expressed various lacks of completion of goals you set for yourselves and are left wondering how time got away from you. Others of you have expressed the realization that you set your goals too high, such that they were completely out of reach to begin with. I, too, missed several deadlines I set for myself but the reality of it is that life often fails to co-operate with the best of intentions.
Take heart, for all is no' lost. Mayhap it is time to reconsider what first appealed, and appeared to be the right direction to follow. For those of you who made New Year's resolutions, it has long been known that setting goals for the New Year is generally done without thorough and complete thought for all that those goals entail. I am no' alluding to things such as weight loss, a new look, etc. but to things of the nature that redirect our paths in life.
It is easy to blame various and sundry situations, even persons, for our failures but if one looks closely enough, one often finds 'self' stood in the way of accomplishment. Few of us are capable, or willing, to take responsibility for our perceived failures but only when one is able and willing to do so, will one be able to sort out the chaos. Certainly, there are extenuating circumstances that prevail, which one is unable to foresee, and which blocks one's path. As you already know, I ran into one such roadblock when my beloved spouse fell ill, out of the blue. For the first three months of the year I was wholly involved in caring for him until his passing, and the following three months, to date, I have been consumed with working to get my life back on track.
I am no' asking for pity by rehashing this but simply stating fact, as an example of how things can suddenly go awry. All of my goals for the year diminished in importance and now I am faced with having to reorder and restructure. And in doing so, I have discovered that certain of those are no longer important, others should have taked precedence in the order of things at the beginning, and still others must remain pending until such time that I can figure a way to accomplish them. Thus you get a picture of how chaos comes about.
Life, being what it is, provides some allowances, if only one pauses to seek them out. While no one of us knows when something might come about to throw us off track, for the most part, chaos does no' reign supreme unless one allows it to. I refuse to allow that to overwhelm me and so it is back to the drawing board, in a manner of speaking.
My family is and will ever be at the top of my list of priorities followed, closely, by my work in service to others. My love of writing is a hobby that I generally work into whatever free time I can manage and while that stands on the thresh-hold of becoming my livlihood, I am blessed in that I have the finances to see me through whatever time it takes me to get my novels published and up for sale. As it now stands, things are in the works; thanks to my most competant staff.
The point I wish to make here is this: One can allow unexpected circumstances to set one back so that goals can never be attained, or one can take the bad with the good and get on with the business of life. I am known for preaching that family should always come first and nothing will ever change that point of view; which leads me to the real crux of this posting. I have received many, many e-mails regarding children as being the 'culprits' that often stand in the way of achieving one's goals. Know this: children are no' culprits' or 'reasons' for failure. They are blessings; 'gifts' we are given and charged with caring for, and keeping safe. Ah, and you have figured out where I am going with this.
More and more, child-safety is becoming a less important situation. There are those who place the responsibility for their children in the hands of third parties and no' only expect but demand that those third parties carry out the duties and responsibilities that belong to the parent(s). Worse, some children are left to their own devices at a too early age, which in my estimation is unconscionable. No arguments for need to work, lack of time, the child's bad behavior, and the like, can absolve a parent(s) of their responsibility for their child or children. Like it or no', you birthed them and 'tis your responsibility to be their primary caretaker and first line of defense, regardless of whatever situation you find yourself in. Sound too tough? I mean to be.
I could go on and on about specific situations involving defenseless children, I have encountered, but 'twould be useless, as far as those children are concerned. The damage has already been done. Sadly, the majority of those children have either suffered irrepairable damage or are no longer alive. What enrages me is the number of parents who are wont to blame others for what happened to their children when it was their mistakes all along. There is no excuse that will ever absolve one of the guilt of failure to protect their children, at all costs.
While there are any number of terrible things that can befall a defenseless child, I will speak to those which most often involve my colleagues and myself. Children of any age are, by their very nature, curious. And while the majority of children we deal with are teenagers, who think they are ten feet tall and bulletproof, we also have dealings with many instances where children are very young. Before I continue, let me say that most certainly there are instances when even the best parenting skills canno' prevent some children from certain dangers no parent can foresee, nor protect against.
That said, we offer our assistance to as many children in harm's way, as we are able to. If we discover that the child fell in harm's way due to lack of proper parenting (and aye, it falls to us to determine that, on a case-by-case situation) we have ways and means of finding better placement for those children, if they survive. We have no qualms about forcing the issue where unstable homes are lacking, for there are so many good and willing people who have no child of their own and will gladly take on the responsibility. Have we been known to circumvent laws and agencies in the best interests of children? Aye, and without fear or guilt.
One of our most dedicated colleagues who works in the interest of children is the Warlock Gregory who, together with his spouse and adult children, will stop at nothing to accomplish whatever needs arise for those children. He and his family are most generous with their time and finances and over the years they have put together an astonishing network of concerned people who assist them. Gregory is a powerful individual to be reckoned with and we are blessed to have him and his family as colleagues and allies, to assist us. He is most notable for his charitable efforts on behalf of children and he will even brow-beat his friends and acquaintences into donating time, effort, and money for his causes.
Be that as it may, we are woefully short on help in every area of our endeavors. Recently, we have turned to bringing into our midst, Outsiders (ordinary folks, for lack of a better description), who have children's best interests at heart. You will hear from some of them, from time to time, for we believe their experiences and passions deserve to be made known. In future, 'tis our hope that our network of assistants will grow to meet our needs. 'Tis slow going, as we must be extremely careful of whom we bring among us; for their safety, as well as that of the children for whom we provide assistance.
I know there are many of you who will, unselfishly, offer your services but please understand that we canno' accept your offers by e-mail, as we have no' the time to wade through the background checks we require before we bring another on board. 'Tis a long and tedious process that no' only requires a lot of paperwork, but also private interviews with some of our staff, who have to make long treks to wherever. In time, we hope to establish a mailing address for that purpose but, again, we must take care it will no' lead back to you, or us, for obvious reasons.
In the interim, please be aware and always, always, if you see or know of a child in danger please report it to your local authorities. If you are concerned that the danger to the child is more than they can handle, or that they do no' respond then at that point e-mail me and I will endeavor to put someone in place to investigate the situation. While we canno' possibly respond to each and every situation, we do our best to cover as many situations as is possible. Sometimes we find we can remove the danger to the child (the perpetrator) before an attack occurs and thus save the child in that manner. Ponder and Blessed May You Be.
posted by Dreamteller at
5:17 AM
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