promising news for Teresa's "paws"

relief upon successfully completing my ASSESSMENT course with Tom ... I DID IT!!! ... pretty nice charcoal spirals & whiskers on my cheeks in this pic. & one below ... courtesy of Ellen one of our "girls" (September 6, 2007)

Hello my friends & family,

My big roo friend & I have a most excellent update for you on my "paws" ... at least as it pertains to my feet for sure ... following the appointment I had a few days ago with a new podiatrist Michelle Prophet-Pearson, based here in Canberra ... & finally, some pic's from my ASSESS with Tom & the ROMEO's graduation ...

big kangaroo ... our "watch roo" at Link Gully campsite

I am considering it somewhat of a breakthrough in getting this whole thing sorted out. Michelle is quite confident that these tingly/numb sensations can be treated with a pair of orthotics that are meant for my type of foot, as opposed to the ones that I got from the 1st podiatrist, which are too hard, not the full length of my foot, and have added support behind only some instead of all of my 5 toes. She also identified how my posture will be significantly improved by the new orthotics she will make for me :)

Sooo, the next trick is to work out if/when I can get in on an appointment earlier than the next available one on the 26th of October, so that I can get fitted for my new orthotics before my plans to head back up to Nan & Hugh's so that I can housesit for them at their farm near Terania Creek. The potential is high given the higher likelihood of some cancellations over the upcoming school holidays. So please keep the positive energy going for me that an opening is offered to me for as early as possible the week of the 10th October.

Once I muck about between here & northern NSW, I will be making my way back over to WA to visit my Seed Mates & OBA friends in Western Australia (for hopefully ~ 15 days), then over to Melbourne (3rd week of November) to reconnect with Glenda , Ruth, & hopefully Dot, possibly to Tassie to reconnect with the 4 Seed Mates down there before hopping back to Sydney & Canberra briefly before my flight to Aotearoa (New Zealand) on December 1st. I'll update this travel plan once I connect with some of my Seed Mates & confirm travel dates, etc. Lookout Pheebs & kt and all the rest of our Seed Mates, I can't wait to catch up with you :)

If anyone is interested in a splendid vacation in NZ, do let me know, I am planning to be there for the 1st 10 days of Dec. before I fly back to N. America, where I'll land into San Francisco for ~10 days before I head up to Seattle & beyond to Edmonton before Christmas ... phew!

wispy clouds & the blue sky splendour of the Orroral Valley (September 2007)

I am getting very close to winding up my Cert. IV ... only one final assignment to go and a few practical sign-offs, which I will take care of this week when I help out the Staff with the Vision Australia group. It's a great group of visually impaired kids, some of who are completely blind, others with some amount of vision or ability to make out shapes/colours/shadows and a few with the ability to sense things such as large buildings and other objects using echo location!!! I helped out with their climbing wall activity this morning and hung out with them while they had their abseil tower fun this afternoon. What an amazing & special group of young adults and what a privilege to be able to work with them today ... plus a few more times this week when I'll be out with them at NORA for their abeiling on Tuesday & back here when they do the High Ropes course.

Speaking of NORA, here are a few pic's I've been wanting to post from my ASSESSMENT course with Tom ... these ones were up on the ridge before getting to the abseil site ...

Tom practicing his "Atlas" pose

The main activity at a site called "Legoland", which is understood to have significance to the local Indigenous people in the area, is scrambling around in the big cave-like spaces created by a whole mess of very large boulders. As it turned out with our time when Tom & I were there with the Ascham Girls College, we only ended up with 30 minutes, instead of the ~1.5 hours I had intended for us. So, I had the girls enter in silence and we circled up around the fire ring in the center of the main chamber. The girls were amazingly attentive and respectful as we sat there in the chilly, windy, and inspiring space and I read them the Gaia Meditation from Joanna Macy's book Coming Back to Life. It was such a special experience and I am so pleased to have made the decision I did in facilitating our time in this way :)

Gaia Meditation in the main chamber

main chamber at "Legoland"

We had a great afternoon at NORA with everyone doing as much as they were able to at the abseil site ...

Teresa's "comfort zone" briefing

learning & growth happen when? ... when you to go into your "stretch zone"?

abseil briefing (con't)

Teresa's abseil demonstration

spectacular blue sky day amid the greenest I'll ever see these hills along Honeysuckle Creek!

Tom & Tess ... knowing that I have successfully completed the most challenging sections of my assessment course, including the steep 2 km downhill walk the day before from the ridge to our campsite near Honeysuckle Creek ... yippee!!!

The Ascham group were a great bunch of young womyn whom I am very pleased to have had out with me for my successful assessment course. What a treat to connect with such amazing and unique individuals and to be able to bring them along through the 9 days we were together, form somewhat squeamish, hesitant girls to more confident and critically thinking young womyn :) Thanks Carter House "girls", you are truly mahvellous!!

That's enough for this update, I am overdue for getting myself to bed for some much needed sleep. I need to be especialy diliget tomorrow in making great strides on my final assignment so that I can wrap it up by the end of this week ...

I will share a few final pic's with you ... of my ROMEO buddy Christopher & his grandmother Jan from the afternoon at the low ropes course on our ROMEO graduation day ...

Jan on the low ropes course

Chris & his grandmother (she's 76 years young!)

A few more of our ROMEO mob with Mount Tennent in the background on August 28, 2007, our graduation day :) Unfortunately, these pic's are not from my camera or my set-up ... but they still capture us ... THE ROMEO's on our special celebration day






Be well my dear ones, I look forward to reconnecting with many of you in the next few months, YIPPEE!!

Hugs 'n' Bugs,

Teresa