Today's Surprise

In the midst of a team meeting today we had a lovely reminder of how important it is to acknowledge the communicative attempts of our Members.

We were all busy writing about how important it is to have a positive outlook in life.  We talked about how some people find it difficult to look for the positive in life, and how perhaps sometimes we are all one of those people.

We came up with quite a list of our abilities:

• Basketball
• Playing piano
• Doing the haka
• Bowling
• Making people happy
• Helping
• Spelling
• Reading
• Advocacy
• All kinds of sport
• Typing

We were just talking, when one of our lovely ladies, stood up and determined that she had something to say. 

What a joy to share that moment.

It doesn't matter if someone communicates verbally, uses signing, keys on a qwerty board or relies on gesture, whatever the mode or method, their message is important and should be heard.

It's an honour to be part of moments like today when someone realises that their "voice" is valued.  Thank you TTP Wednesday crowd for reminding us of your abilities and sharing your lives with us.

The earth and her people

Today I want to discuss what is happening around the world.  Today it is impossible to see the news without seeing the devastation in Japan. It is difficult to watch all the images. There should be a warning on the news that the images are upsetting. The news of a tsunami and earthquake have been very alarming to the whole world.

There are things that are destroying the planet and we need to all do our part. People need to all work together so that our world is alright. I am not sure what needs to be done but I am sure that I am right about people needing to take care of the world. We should all always recycle.  We should not always be wasting power or resources.

There are things that affect the earth and there are things that affect people. I think that both of the issues that I have discussed in this post affect the earth and the people.

ben

Contributions to the World

How lovely it is to share time with such interesting and fun young adults.  Some of them we have known for quite a long time.  It’s a delight to watch them learn and grow and change.

It’s fascinating to talk with them and find out how they see their journey to adulthood.

Here’s one such conversation today.

“I want to talk about all the things I have learned since being a child.  I didn’t understand all the things about the world but now I am an adult I am more mature.  This is new for me to share myself.  I always thought that people didn’t want to hear from me but now I know better.  I do have things to share and I can contribute.”

And they certainly can contribute.

Today we had a long conversation with one of our Members about contributing to society.  It was interesting because he seemed to think that cleverness was his greatest, perhaps only contribution.  The conversation finished with the pleasant realisation that everyone has something to offer and everyone has value to our community and our society.  Being clever is not the “way we decide the value of a person’s life or contribution.”

I say AMEN to that!

A combined post by Angela and ben