In my line of work, to attain healthy results with the kids we work with, the giving of oneself is a pure necessity, but it can also be quite a tough one at times!
As a matter of fact it can sometimes play havoc on your system that if you don’t take care in keeping that balance, you might just topple over one day! Sometimes love hurts... and it hurts really bad, especially when we loose a kid, which is not so uncommon in a country like Brazil that even with such wealth, still ranks fifth in the line of inequality according to the latest World Bank Report on Equity and Development. Brazil is kind of caught up in an “Inequality Trap” because there is so little give and take.
Yes! It costs a lot to give a little to those who don’t have much.
People, who wonder how we keep it up, often tell me that I had better watch myself otherwise I might just end up being the needy one myself. To some extent that could be true, as those who have followed us through the years understand that “giving” can often become a one-way street when it comes to dealing with high-risk people. It’s hard if one expects something in return.
Who’ll recharge
your batteries when the going gets tough? Those who know Sandra, once a
highly at risk street kid but now the happy mother of these two little guys, understand what a tremendous drain of energy that young lady has been through the years. Her hubby knows too!
So how does one balance this story? Today I experienced something very special that gave me a total recharge (and to tell you the truth I was needing one!).
Sandra popped by my office together with her husband and their first son Patrick to show off their new addition to everyone at Hummingbird. She made a point of declaring the real reason for stopping by to see me, as they had also been to the registry office to register the baby and wanted to tell me so.
The baby was wrapped in a brightly decorated towel she had made during the couple of days she was in hospital recovering the birth. In the corner of that blue and white towel, embroidered in deep blue, was a very well known name, that name was mine!
G r e g o r y
Wow! I really didn’t know where to hide my tears because I’ve never had a child named after me. It was almost like that same feeling of great pride and joy I felt on the birth of my own son Marcus, many years ago!
You see, inequality, no matter what background you come from, can be evened out if we just learn to give a little more of ourselves to each other. Patrick is learning something very valuable, which his own mother had lost as a child but is gradually regaining as an adult; he’s learning the joys of love through his little brother and the family they are part of.
I think we all have a lesson to learn.
Taken with Canon Powershot S300
