Monday Muses ~ Craig's Table

We all know that there are times when change is the only option that is understandable and the only pathway that is possible.

As much as we want or try to hold onto the security and the known past or even the uncomfortable present, there is a "something" that says its time and it is safe and it is exciting to move on, to find what is over the hill or around the corner or anywhere that is currently just out of our vision.

It is in this time we unknowingly still look for the security of a path well trodden, mostly not by known feet, but feet of our extended community.

And as they saying goes, we boldly go, not into truly totally unknown for countless thousands have gone before us, we go into our own unknown. And we start the new unwritten chapter. Hence this photo of food. Corey and I had a meeting late this morning with industry people. It was going to be close to lunch time. A member of the Craig's Table A Team knew about the meeting and prepared a hamper of food from Craig's Table participants and A Team for us to take with us. Starting from the left at the back in the container is roast carrot ginger and coconut soup, in front of that in containers is roast tomato and pasta soup, moving back to the top right is vegetable and cheese frittata in front of that is apple and blueberry crumble. And holding pride of position is a dozen exceedingly fresh Craig's Table eggs. What is amazing about this food is that the vast majority of it came from the Craig's Table Bags of Love food hamper program.

It took the person all weekend to prepare and cook the food. The reason for the food hamper was very simple, the very thing we do at Craig's Table is we share and we welcome and we open the door for more of the injured worker community to come through. Such is the gratitude for this person for all that Craig's Table has filled their life with, this simple meal came from the heart. It was an honor for Corey and I to deliver this food this morning.

But mostly this person wanted the industry people to understand something very important to every member of the injured worker community, they wanted the wider workers compensation industry to know that they are still able to learn and to do more than is assumed of them and they want many many others from the injured worker community to join them at Craig's Table.

This person wanted the workers compensation industry to know that they still have dreams of being able to return to the open workplace, and dreams to achieve the future for their families and dreams to just be able to get up in the morning and go to work.

There is always excitement at Craig's Table when one of the A Team gains a job interview, the reinforcement of courage and belief in each other is truly palpable, even a short work trial sends ripples of hope and excitement through the entire place. Corey and I really do get to go to work with this amazingly talented and determined people, we get to see the transformation, we get to share their journey (warts and all).

Muhammad Yunus in his Noble Peace Prize speech said "A human being is born into this world fully equipped not only to take care of him or herself, but also to contribute to enlarging the well-being of the world as a whole. Some get the chance to explore their potential to some degree, but many others never get any opportunity, during their lifetime, to unwrap the wonderful gift they were born with. They die unexplored and the world remains deprived of their creativity, and their contribution."

Add to these words the thoughts and beliefs of Richard Pimentel (Richard Pimentel is an American disability rights advocate, trainer, and speaker who was a strong advocate for

the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act. He developed training materials aimed to help employers integrate persons with disabilities into the workplace.) How to Live the Life You Never Imagined -if you can get a copy of Music within you will learn really just how determined to achieve and to make the path wider and easier for others to follow Richard Pimentel truly is. However the question that he asks over and over and over again is still as relevant today as it was the first time I heard the question asked "given your ability, what is your response?" For me the creation of everything that Craig's Table is and what Craig's Table is forming into is my response to my ability to open the door wider, to set the table for more, to hold the hearts and the hands and the dreams and gift wings in every shape and size required.

As with everything at Craig's Table, each time it appears that there isn't anything more possible or anything new to attempt, something new arrives. In the coming weeks the readers here in Sydney will get to hear Craig's

Table being spoken about on the community sections of the local radio stations, Corey and his team are working their way through

contacting all the radio stations in order for them to carry information about every part of Craig's Table. We know it is important to reach into the hearts and homes of the injured worker community, and the best way to do that is by radio. And then there is the Craig's Table Social Club along with all the ways of including the widest possible number members from the injured worker community: they have events planned that include "family gatherings" for soup nights to chat or play the wii or any of the board games and then there are fund raising sausage sizzles.

Corey and I have worked out the best thing to do is offer support and then get out of their way. This group of amazingly talented fiercely determined people have taken their futures back into their own hands, and in the process they have taken ownership of all that Craig's Table offers (using Richard Pimentel's words" in ways they could never imagine. Today it was plates of food to share in order for those who

have the ability to respond in order to have other members of the injured worker community coming through the ever open door of Craig's Table, as for the morrow, I have the best of feelings, tomorrow Corey and one of the A

Team will be delivering blankets to the Parramatta Mission for other members of our wider community to have in order to wrap them warmly and add shelter from the coming cold nights of winter. The one constant we have at Craig's Table is the knowing that the injured worker community fits into every section of the community and as such we also know we have the ability to respond to the needs of others as much as we have the ability to respond to the needs of each other.

Once more it is that time of the evening, time to have a cup of tea as I ponder what to have for dinner and then an early night (hopefully to sleep all night) . Before I do that though if you have a community based project that you want some help with or just want to chat about to see if it is possible for the A Team to help you with, please let me know or send an email to [email protected] someone will get back to you.

Yours in service

Rosemary

Social equity for injured workers

craigstable.net.au Craig's Table Facebook

117 Magowar Road Girraween