My community
There is something very satisfying about working in the community. That’s where people are real. After fifty years working in the corporate arena both in England and here in New Zealand, it is a real joy to get out and about and see what’s actually happening, particularly all around the beautiful city of Porirua where I live. From the rural dweller to the urban, from those who have more to those who have less, from those whose skin is brown to those whose is white, from those who have this belief to those who have that belief, from those who come from other parts of the world (and you couldn’t come from much farther away than I did in England – although I was born in India) to those who have always lived here, hope inevitably springs eternal, even if some of us may have serious doubts from time to time and wonder whether that hope is worth hanging onto, and where the next meal is coming from. I well remember a time in my life when we were newly married and my husband gave me a certain amount of cash each week and that was all there was. With a tiny child I can still see myself putting a certain amount of the money into different envelopes on a high shelf, ready to pay the various bills that I knew would surely come. And I remember many times looking at the few pennies left in my hand and looking at my daughter and wondering how on earth I was going to make the money meet the week. But there was a way and eventually, as soon as he walked in the door at the end of the working day, I walked out to a job I could do at night with the few skills I had at the time that could be worked around a child. And gradually we clawed our way out of the abyss and things began to change. Now that I have reached a time in my life when I can follow a different path, my passion is to work for the community, hoping I can make a difference as I go. As an author, I’m on the lookout for situations that inspire me in the field of human endeavour, so that I can write stories and share them with others to inspire anyone who wants to listen and especially those for whom hope is currently at a low ebb.