Its all about the Kids...

I was reading an article in the local paper about this time last year about the ISPCC and its lack of call facilitators for its phone service, Childline which resulted in thousands of calls from children being unanswered! This pulled at my conscience and heart strings a bit, quite a big bit in fact that I felt I had to do something to help!! So I signed up to become a volunteer for said service and a few months, various interviews and checks later I was on the training course! Now for me the idea of going back into a classroom environment was not great, I hate the idea of having to speak up in a room full of strangers..but that I did!! It was a small group, 9 or 10 of I think and 2 nights a week we would do our training. The main point of the service is that its a listening service...now while many think they may be good listeners, its actually harder than it sounds! We had to learn how to read between the lines and explore the bigger picture all the while maintaining out boundaries with the callers, not giving them advice and sticking to our my service as a listening provider..not someone at the other end of the phone that's going to tell the caller what to do! We empower the caller to see things for themselves, to call the shots in their situations. While its not always easy, its extremely satisfying when a caller thanks you for listening and that now things don't seem so bad. I spent last weekend at the annual volunteer conference for the ISPCC and it was the reminder that we all needed, to remind us why we are doing this!! The ISPCC relies a lot on volunteers to provide its services and at times its hard fitting it in with everyday life...family, friends, work etc, but I try to bear in mind that Im lucky enough to have all those things. The conference was inspiring, a big part of that due to the guest speaker, John Lonergan (I felt completely inspired and motivated after hearing him and will defo have to go and buy his book this week!! He made a very good statement which went along the lines of...When volunteering for something, do it without expecting anything back and that's when you'll get the greatest reward!! And to be honest, it couldn't be more true..I didn't know what to expect going into this so didn't expect much, but now I've gained so much from it, from the friends I've made in there to the thank you for listening comments from the little voice at the other end of the phone that just wanted someone to hear them and what they had to say...after all children are our future, the next generation, why not give them the best start to life we possibly can!!

John Lonergan - Former Governor of Mountjoy Prison - Go buy it!!

New Beginnings :-)

Well....I have finally decided to put into action one of my goals for the year 2009, a little late I know! However I am going to give this blogging thing a go...a few blogs have inspired me enough recently to make me actually get around to doing this myself. Stay with me though while I find my way around!
You will generally find that most of these updates will be sent from my desk at work where I should be working obviously and not staring out of the window daydreaming about all things non work related. By the way I actually like my job, I'm just easily distracted!
If love all things enchanted, gothic, fairy related, vintage and creative...although my creative side needs to be worked on, I love to read about other people's creativity! Victoria Frances and Luis Royo will contribute a lot to the way I'd like my blog to look...the artwork form both of these inspires me!
Tattoo's are a passion of mine and am currently frustrated that I cannot seem to get my next tattoo piece down on paper...its in my head but when I try to explain it to someone it comes out all wrong, however these things cant be rushed and the finished product will be worth the wait!
Music - cant imagine life without it! I've been writing my own bits and pieces for a while now, maybe if I'm brave enough I'll post some here...eventually!!
I also have a tendency to ramble on.....