I feel guilty for not having blogged for so long. I've kind of been in hibernation...
Why? Well at the same time I've had the good, the bad and the ugly -
Good. In the past three weeks I've been offered and accepted a new position as an Adult Education Consultant with the ELM Centre in Sydney (Education for Life and Ministry - the Lay Education arm of the Uniting Church NSW Synod). Within the same three weeks we've looked at residences and chosen the place we will be living from 1st September, and I've made the announcement about my intentions to Church Council and then the whole congregation. So, overall good, but as you can imagine, stressful.
Bad. For the past three weeks my father has been in hospital. He has Type II Diabetes and as a result the circulation in his feet (one in particular) has been shutting down. He had a difficult bypass operation in which they had to use plastic veins because his own veins are shot or had been previously removed to use for heart or carotid artery surgeries. The operation has not been successful, so he is now facing amputation, at least of some toes and possibly the whole lower limb. But in the mean time they have diagnosed kidney damage (possibly as a result of the Diabetes medication) and evidence that he has had a minor heart attack after the operation. Then the blood thinners they put him on to try to help the heart and kidney conditions caused significant bleeding requiring a number of transfusions of blood and blood parts. He has been into and out of the ICU, and he is on constant morphine to deaden the pain of the foot. So, pretty much all bad, and as you can imagine, stressful.
Ugly. In the last week two major responsibilities came to a head - four performances of a play I've been rehearsing for the past six weeks, and a presentation I had to make along with our NSW Rural Chaplain, asking for the funding to enable him to continue in his position. The play went well, and we are hopeful that the funds will be made available for the Rural Chaplain but it was just a bit much coming all together. So, an ugly pressure, ups and downs, and generally, stressful.
Anyway, I'm going back into hibernation now for a while...