Monday Muses ?? ?? ??

And so it started...that phone call; you know THAT phone call' the phone call that you knew was always going to come and that regardless of how prepared you were or what else had been filling your time nothing you

would/could/should say was ever going to be what was required. Preparations had been made, notes had been taken, concepts had been outlined, required research was well under way. Heck even part of my desk had been cleared and time-frames had been set. Then The Marksman phoned. Oh My Gosh, Oh My Oh My; he was (almost) happy with me, the reading materials I was tackling was approved of, the notes we had worked on were (almost) approved and I had maintained enough coffee breaks to demonstrate that I had (almost) placed the incident aside. Both The Marksman and Corey have kept me as on track as it is possible for them to do. The last few weeks have been harder than anything I have ever encountered before, as I told one person who asked me how I was handling all that was/is happening I explained that for the very first time ever in all the time I have been within the workers compensation process I actually had to admit that I felt like a victim and that is a feeling I will not allow back into my being. For now it is acknowledge and move on there is nothing more that I can do.

Who needs to sleep when it is possible to sit and learn from Kristen Chavez Yvonne Guibert Margaret Spence Rosa Royo and Marques Torbet The topic for the webinar was Racial Inequity for Professionals in Workers' Comp" - I will post a link to the webinar when I get it. For me the time was 1am here in New South Wales the conversation hit many raw nerves that I discussed briefly with Margaret and Marques post the webinar. Margaret through the webinar was referring to the importance of have a voice at the table and not just being the "token" As I said this hit a very exposed raw nerve for me. I have been the "token" in the room, and the voice at the table...let me explain what happened. I was invited to a meeting to discuss my work, the framework it was built in, the concepts and research papers etc that I had explored. I had heard the convener of the meeting speak at a conference about the importance of inclusion and the need to make every silo within workers compensation redundant. It started out a pleasant and somewhat productive meeting. Then the meeting went around me, it went in front of me and finally it just ignored me. Now I had a choice to make, did I sit at the meeting and pretend that I was invisible, or did I test to see just how invisible I was. So I packed my notes, picked up my bag and walked out. As I left morning tea arrived; I went downstairs to a nearby coffee shop, I had coffee, chatted to a few people there who I knew, then my phone rang. Suddenly someone in the meeting had noticed that I wasn't in the room; "where are you?" was the question "we can't start the second half without you" was the comment, "you need to get back here, XYZ is waiting for you!!!!!" I asked when was it noticed that I was not in the room and was told that other than someone saying that they had seen me during morning tea it wasn't clear how long I had been gone or where I had gone to. I responded that I had left before morning tea so it would not have been possible for anyone to see me at morning tea, I added that I had my bag with me so there was no requirement for me to return as XYZ had not included me in any of the conversations preferring to simply refer to me in order that I nod in agreement with what was being said in regards to the injured worker community. I didn't return to the meeting, the meeting came to me. The interesting this about equality is that it is important to include everyone as a whole person not just as a token.

PRESCRIBED DEATHS is hard but important to read. It took me back to a time when prescription medication ruled my life and to the 3 suicide attempts I made as a direct result of not being in control of my life.

As with far too many others I totally lost my identity and my ability to plan more than the next few hours when it would be time to take another handful of prescription medication or call the locum to administer a pethodine injection.

I wrote 6 weeks several years back now, sadly though my experience still holds true for far too many people. Thank you Patrick

I caught up for a coffee and chat (don't we love Zoom) with a person I had done some work with a few years back. *Andrew told me that he had gotten on with his life after more set backs than any one person should encounter. His chosen career was no longer an option for him and for a long time he had felt such rage that he was seriously at risk full emotional breakdown . Then as the way of serendipity works, he watched a small child get a wheelchair out of a car and lift another small child into the wheelchair. Both the children were laughing and just getting on with what needed to be done; *Andrew said that is when he realised that no one was coming to lift him or laugh with him, he needed to get over the anger get rid of the blame stop waiting for the injury to "un-happen" *Andrew said he wanted to chat with me because of the many conversations he and I had had and how how now understood that I was not being un-supportive when I would ask about the morrow or the direction he was going in. So much of everything that happens at and within Craig's Table is the open-ended conversations, the conversations that have a start point that allows for the meandering conversation that always heads to the outcome that is in the best interest for the reason the conversation began. *Andrew knows he will still have setbacks and he knows that frustration will creep up on him from time to time. He also knows that he has a workplace injury, he is not and he never was his injury. (*Andrew is not his real name)

Time to step into the kitchen to make some dinner.

Before I do that I need to thank everyone who has been inquiring about my well-being in regards to covid 19, it is wonderful to be surrounded by people who truly care. So to pass the good wishes on I hope that everyone is also staying safe.

Yours in service

Rosemary

Karen and Sonia

Nicholas Muldoon Co-CEO at Easy Agile and Sonia  

Movie of the week The Current War I thoroughly enjoyed this movie, the only tiny disappointment for me is I would have liked to have seen a tad more in regards to Nikola Telsa