I am now a fully resident York person, working and living in one place. It’s great! First time I’ve done this for years. I have been a serial commuter, and now giving it up for a 15 minute bike ride. Work is going ok, hard to get my head into lots of new names, people, information and try and absorb it all, but its going to be good, people I am working for seem really nice and the job will suit me as its all about health and social care working better together. York is completely skint like most councils, and because its quite “posh” doesn’t qualify for alot of additional funding, but still has its problems, like lots more older people needing help at the end of their life.
The last couple of years have been really difficult with the commute and to be honest a really difficult relationship with my boss who I found very challenging to work with. The kids and Steve have suffered really as I’ve been tired and grumpy and not keen to talk when I get home. I now feel like I’ve got more mental energy (may not last long) and more relaxed.
Steve suddenly seems like a really nice bloke again, which basically means I am being nice to him, instead of dead grumpy, tired, bossy and irritable. What a lucky man he is!
Going back to the gardening analogies, I reckon some plants and seeds just don’t grow in certain conditions. If I am in a job I don’t like I am not going to thrive in any area of my life, that’s the way I am made. For other people work is not such a big deal. Trying to change the person you are is not really possible, just like a plant that likes shade won’t grow in the sun. Most men couldn’t stay at home with the kids, and cope with it all as Steve does, but for him its fine, and he actually quite likes it (most of the time). What I find difficult is people always asking me why he hasn’t got a job! Not sure they would say the same to a woman?
When it comes to sharing faith and experiences, how I would put it across is just not going to sink in for some people, whether they like what I am saying or not, because of other things going on for them at the time or just not being able to hear. Sometimes as a Christian that’s frustrating. The bible though is full of encouragement, as it has ever been thus even for Jesus and the disciples when he was alive…
The Parable of the Sower
13 That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the lake. 2 Such large crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat in it, while all the people stood on the shore. 3 Then he told them many things in parables, saying: “A farmer went out to sow his seed. 4 As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. 5 Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. 6 But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. 7 Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. 8 Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred,sixty or thirty times what was sown. 9 Whoever has ears, let them hear.”
inspiredinyork 