According to the Dictionary

According to the dictionary “verb” is a noun, however I well remember my grade 3 teacher Miss Kimber also explaining that a verb is a “doing word”.

I had a long drive last week, and as is my way (when I have the car to myself) I listen to audio books, this time it was Lanny Basham’s Freedom Flight- I could not tell you how many times I have listened to the audiobook, I just know that every time I listen there is a new lesson/concept within its wisdoms to catch my attention.  If you have not read or listened to the book, I won’t spoil it for you, however there is one line that kept coming back to me over and over again on the drive to and from my destination. To paraphrase “you have to think about something for it to be focused on” 

This brings me to a conversation that I had whilst I was away.

I was asked “what is your disability”? The question came from a relatively new colleague who meant no harm, he just needed to know where my mindset is placed and why my thought patterns did not mirror image others who have sustained a serious workplace injury.

All of this brought me to ask myself the very same question. I know what the medical answer to the question is, I also know that that is not my answer, that is merely the opinion of others. So, I dug a bit deeper into the question and my own mindset to see if I could find an answer; but there was no way of framing the question “what is your disability” that simply did not insult at worst or upset at least any image I hold of myself. 

Medical truths, I have serious skeletal damage to my physical body. Medical truth, there are days when it physical hurts more to lay in bed than it does to stand up. Medical truth, there are days when it hurts more to move than to stay in bed. All of this is me and none of it is me. 

Legal truths, I sustained a serious workplace injury and now should I decide that I want to quit working, I would qualify for a (Australian) disability pension.

Psychological truth, I simply do not see myself as having any form of disability, I have the odd stumbling block along each days path as does everyone else. If you ask the people I work with they will tell you that the one true disability I have is my addiction to caffeine. (I can’t deny that) (in a legal sense I am guilty as described)

Many times these past few days I have gone back to the question and the audiobook and to the words “you have to think about something for it to be focused on” and in doing that I began to notice things that are always there, I was focussing on what others believed should would or do create limits within me and the limits translate into a “disability” in their framework of understanding of the “who” I am. And to be honest all of it made me totally uncomfortable because I refuse to be limited even in my own way of thinking about what I can or cannot do or achieve. 

All of this came to a great stop yesterday at Craig’s Table when two very different conversations happened. 

The first conversation I was not a part of, I was merely an eavesdropper, the conversation was between a participant of Craig’s Table and the manager of a peak industry group. In a nutshell the manager was not concerned about the participant’s workplace injuries, the manager wanted the participants industry knowledge to be passed on for the upcoming generation of apprentices. These to men sat in a conversation that took them from workplace to workplace to industry failures to industry achievements over multiple countries: it was like watching and listening to two friends who haven’t seen each other for a long time, just sitting and catching up. 

The second conversation I was the focal point (which I still find odd); a participant introduced me to another person “this is Rosemary, Rosemary built Craig’s Table”  

With those words, the question of “what is your disability” came to an end, I really don’t need to know what the answer is, or even if there is an answer to the question in order to validate the question.

Every day I get up, I continue to do all that is required to keep body and soul together ( I go for coffee) I read and research in order to continue to build Craig’s Table, I dig deeper into the hearts and minds of the injured worker community to seek the ways forward for each of them and then find ways to bring it all into reality.

Right now as I am writing this none of you know if I am sitting down, laying down or standing up, none of you can take any of the physical pain from my body (if that were possible it would have been done a long time back) but all of you are doing something, and that something is a verb, how you read what I have written is entirely up to each of you again that is a verb. 

If I am to be able to continue to build Craig’s Table as I am determined to do I need my focus to be on “the where to next” and remove the “why” because the “why” is already in place so it needs no more exploration, the were to is yet another long and open road with more audiobooks and more concepts to garner and more outcomes and conversations to have. 

Lastly there really is no room in my life for the prefix” dis” I am as abled as I need to be for the things I need to do: and right now; that means going for coffee. (another verb) 

Yours in service
Rosemary

www.craigstable.net.au
rosemary@craigstable.net.au
SKYPE Rosemary2412
18^th August 2018