Lived Experience Forum

[Appleblossom]

@HenryX 

Wise to recharge your batteries, energy and motivation for the jobs and days ahead.  It is an enormously challenging time.  Its good the forum has been some support.  Take as long as you need and give yourself breaks.

It is good for me to feel connected to people in parts of the country that are a long way.  Today I mentioned the cyclones to a neighbour, she did not really comprehend, but at least I brought it to her attention.  

[Anastasia]

Pleased to hear that whilst your situation is far from.ideal @HenryX you are ok. What a relief. Keep taking care my friend x

[Mazarita]

Hi @HenryX, just read your posts here about the cyclone. So well prepared in many ways, you and your town. Great to hear food will be okay and that you have enough power to communicate beyond town. Sounds like a full on experience to go through. You seem strong in the face of it. May there be speedy restorations for you and the community.

[HenryX]

@Mazarita @Anastasia @Appleblossom @Dimity 

To Everyone

Thank you all forum members, for the encouragement, good wishes and reassurance during and following this recent cyclone event in Western Australia. It certainly has been an (unwelcome) experience. However, as I have said in other posts, it truly is amazing to see what can be accomplished when people have a purpose and goal. The support and camaraderie extended by people to each other are fantastic to see. Those sentiments do not apply just in my immediate environment but from as distant and far away as people are from one another on this forum. For me to have people, whom I know only by their written word, a pseudonym and avatar, providing encouragement and moral support, has been very sustaining during a difficult time. That is demonstrated by the fact that I look forward to returning to the messages posted and the engagement available to me through the forum.

It is also surprising that, under normal day-to-day circumstances, losing a portion of the roof on the house would be a significant blow and even cause for considerable distress. The whole perspective is changed when one is aware that others have lost their houses, homes and businesses.

Unfortunately, one person has lost their life in this cyclone. Given the magnitude of the event, we are certainly thankful that more lives have not been lost. This is particularly so in view of the fact that the majority of buildings in the path of the cyclone would not have been cyclone rated.

Australia has "copped" a few heavy hits in the past few years. Rebuilding, in all the senses of the word, I believe, must be our target. My concept of appropriate hierarchy, in Australia, is based on the individual, the family, community, state and the nation. We need to look after ourselves, not at the expense of the interests or welfare of others, but rather so that we maintain the best capacity that we can manage, individually, in order to contribute to the benefit of each level above us in what is essentially an inverted hierarchy.

I hope that is not sounding too philosophical, but it is the reason and the incentive for me to get out and do as much as I can, for myself, to recover the ground lost {using a military analogy}. In this way, I am better able to contribute, if and when required. This idea is well extended to our own experiences, as forum members, gathered in a group that serves people with various but somewhat similar issues and experiences in their lives. All this in our effort to work to achieve our best possible capacity, first for ourselves, and thus improving our own reserve capacity to meet the needs of others from time to time, as the need and opportunity arise. For many people, particularly carers, the demand on their personal reserves is almost constant.

With Much Appreciation

&

My Very Best Wishes

HenryX