Warrior.

As many of you know, the precious boy that we have worked with for two years passed away at the end of October. It was sudden. It was devastating.

I won't go into how much his soul, his smile, and his family meant to us. I will say that through this experience we have learned a lot about family and about grieving together.
His mother, someone we both admire, expresses herself ever so eloquently on this blog:
The latest post is about how her other son (born two years after Owen) has found support at school...from his teacher and classmates. It is so beautiful that after wiping away tears I had to share it here. Children, in their innocence, can be enormous pillars of strength when given the chance. They amaze me.

At the funeral, I learned something else. I learned that Owen's name meant "warrior".
Of course it did.

I miss you, Owen.

Party time.

Gingerbread lattes...

I have been caffeine-free since the start of October. I don't feel very different, but it feels good to order my gingerbread latte decaf for some reason.
Every winter Mark and I joke about having to budget in warm beverages...we're that bad.
My favourite Second Cup, on King St. East is where we'll toast to the completion of my exams. The last one is tomorrow- and just imagine, I've gone through studying without my old friend caffeine :)

Human.

My prof said this yesterday,
"we don't judge because we're bad people, we judge because we're human."
I have been thinking about it ever since. Why does this sentence bother me so much?
What does it even mean to my prof? To me?

Something called Anti Oppressive practice is emerging in social work. Gosh, I have read about it until my eyes bulged like those funny looking fish.
It is a framework that recognizes the service user (client) is viewed as the expert of their own life. A framework that outlines principles such as being anti-racist, anti-discriminatory, empowering, inclusive, adressing societal barriers and intersecting oppressions and lastly, being non-judgemental. Does this sound too good to be true? Do you think people can ACTUALLY work with strangers like this?

Have you ever noticed how hard it is not to judge someone? It happens so quickly.Too quickly.
Even though I am guilty, it still REALLY bothers me when I hear someone making a negative assumption or judgement about someone they barely know based on a simple fact, gesture or appearance. Even worse, when they have heard something about that person from someone else (not even observing it for themselves).

I don't like feeling judged, and I don't want "being human" to be my excuse for judging someone else.

Just a thought...