Sunday, August 24, 2008

Glad News - Sad news

My daughter has finally moved to Bristol and, despite a setback where her living accomodation is concerned, is easily settling into her new life, and can't wait to start the new course!

As a counterpoint to this, I heard from my mum yesterday that one of my sisters is dying of cancer, with only a few weeks to live!
To say it was a shock is an understatement, and I'm still reeling from the blow, despite the fact that I haven't seen or spoken to her for 24 years (and that's another story!).

I had been looking at the A215 open forum just before the phone call giving me this news, and the students were having fun writing a poem summing up their day and, once I'd dried my tears and put the phone down, this brief poem came into my head. It's not a great poem, but it perfectly describes how I felt at the moment of being told the news:


Had bad news about my sister,
haven't seen her for years -
to be honest, not missed her.
But told by my mother
she has 4 weeks to live -
the guilt of it all
makes it harder to grieve.


I posted it, and felt an immediate guilt at doing so, which I guess is part and parcel of all the baggage we carry around involving our relationships with family and friends, but I decided that, as this was part of myself, an emotional reaction, then it was better to get it out, and ponder over my reactions, than to let it fester.

We are all such a bundle of contradictions and angst, aren't we? (wry grin).


Saturday, August 16, 2008

I'm Looking Forward To . . .

September!

It's really just dawning on me what I'll be doing when my new course starts.
I was fortunate to have a friend email me the details of my TMA and ECA questions for it.

Not that this is really much help without the course books to guide me - but it at least has given me a glimpse - and I'm excited at the scope of the work we will be tackling!

My daughter, who will be doing the same course, has already started to fill her note books with ideas and poetry, and anything else that comes to mind.
She has had a lot of inspiration lately, as she's about to move from sleepy west Wales, to that vibrant city of Bristol!

I am so going to miss her, so the fact that we'll be study-buddies during the course is great, as it gives us even more excuse to keep in touch than we already have - it's going to be a blast, I can see!

We have another study-buddy joining us as well - a good friend I met through the O.U. forums, so we'll be able to bat ideas off of each other and, hopefully, be even more inspired!

Roll on September, that's all I can say! Lol.