Networks

There are lots of things they don't tell you when you're growing up.

And there's lots of things that nobody is ever going to tell you. Ever. You just have to work them out for yourself - of if you're really lucky, somebody might let you know about some of these pearls of wisdom and you'll get set on the straight an narrow.

There are other things that you are told, take no notice of, and then finally, after years of parroting these catechisms, you work out what they really mean.

"God helps those who help themselves." Been saying it for years.

The words that have stuck with me is. "God takes care of his own," and "Treat others as you wish to be treated yourself". All good stuff.

This week I've spent a bit of time reflecting of faith - and responsibility. The real meaning behind these sayings.

As a child, I was sent off to Sunday School at the local church. I'm not sure why - my parents didn't go to church, though they would both call themselves "Methodist" or "Christian" on official forms.

Sunday school meant spending the first half hour in the little white church in Myponga and another half hour in the church hall next door where we did games and bible lessons and other banal things like that. I attended Sunday School until I was sixteen (when it had gone from Sunday School to youth group.)

What did I get out of this? Not much really. I know the Lord's Prayer and the ten commandments. I've got a Christian work ethic. I like to think that I take care of people.

So I gave back my Christian ticket  many years ago,  but still have faith that God, the universe, Yahweh, what every you wish to call the deity some believe runs the place - and I still believe that personal responsibility is the key to this. If you take responsibility for your actions, you will be rewarded in kind.

A couple of times this rang true - so very true in this difficult week of adjustments.

Sitting with a gym friend talking about the joys of making changes. She's been a little upset after Pump class on Sunday - tossing about the joys of resigning from a role she took on after leaving a stable job in a large corporation last year. I agreed to meet her after the gym for dinner to talk about her resigning.

"You can't be on your own tonight." I told her
"Nah, I always have the teddy bears."
"Not the same. It's night's like this when you need to be with people. It's all a bit scary, but you've taken responsibility - you will be rewarded for it."
"You sound very sure of yourself."
"Never surer."

There were other reasons for meeting this friend and not leaving her to the company of her teddy bears.

She's a part of the single woman's network.

What they don't tell you when you're a little girl is that some women don't grow up to get married and have children. Some women find themselves on their own in the world. And they need to find their own support network. Like minded people who are in the same boat - intelligent, professional, single women who find themselves banding together. An easy alliance of friendship in and support.

We had a great talk that night, me and my gym mate. She's on her way - much happier for removing herself from a role where she was unhappy.

The meeting with my friend rallied me to do something about my own situation. Unhappy in my current role, I've made a decision, at last.

Now it's just a matter of having a bit of faith, taking some responsibility, using my networks and getting on with things.

Maybe that this what all this faith stuff is about. Just having the courage to get through life.

It's going to be an interesting few weeks.