Reduce the stress you say

 Remove the stress or I take away your licence.  Famous words that you hear as your career path slams into a brick wall of determination.  The other person sees you are going down hill and gives an ultimatum that cannot be ignored.  A car licence is a must for a Taxi driver.  No licence no income.

So with these famous words ringing in my ear I sulked about for a week.  Actually I just slept and slept and slept.  I had not had a decent night sleep for over three years.  Being literally on call for three years non stop night shift had began having weird effects.  Then strange things began happening.  Like having to chase car down hill as the handbrake did not work that day.  Great.  Had passengers in car too.

The Doctors "reduce the stress" command came before a melt down  Boy was I lucky.  The exercise machines were in the lounge room.  I could peddle away and watch DVDs as my TV reception still is crap.  I watched DVDs for two weeks and really got board. Found you could read books while riding the exercise machine. I had so much time that reflection on training methods and community development come rushing in.

But what to do with time?  Get use to it as I still had what turned out to be five weeks more of it.  So I began a garden again. It was years since I had actually had the desire to acknowledge the opportunity of creating a garden. In the year that has passed since the Doctors ultimatum I have mowed, weeded, planted, lopped, chopped and pruned my way through hours of my time.  The benefits are well worth the effort.  Currently the third vegetable garden is being created from nothing.  The planning and determination to get this done was surprising even to myself.  I have barted my food for other peoples labour even. 

Exercise was becoming important to me.  I trimmed off some of the excess fat by exercise equipment placed conveniently in front of the DVD machine in the lounge.  I could study, ride / walk and watch T.V too.  I began to once again swim in the local pool. 

Thirty five years ago [at high school] I loved art.  Paining and placing things on canvases.  When we moved countries I started to sell balloons,  Then to face paint.  Something that I had gradually left behind again as my life go busier and the children began growing up. My canvases were all mobile. With the driving of taxis I was based at home. Then I started to paint a few years ago.  I found I enjoyed the challenge and waiting to see the final product was a suspense in itself.

The two years ago got attacked by a hammer wielding flesh biting drug addict .... - actually the same person that had triggered my painting journey. Having worked and further studied in the health field I dreaded what might be now occurring within my system. I tried painting this out of my system.  Worked to a point.  I feel that the painting will not be finished while I wait the next few years just to be sure in my own mind of non- infection.

 The one week after this happened I ended up beaten while driving the taxi.  The main result was that my swimming was affected -  I now kept going to the left... my now weak swimming shoulder joint. Strange but to this day I still refuse to pick up the man behind the fist!  Be he with a crowd of friends or not.

 Melt down came in the form of stress diabetes. Something had to give.I found I could not paint as i had. I brought a caravan and store the paints and canvases in there. I now needed something else. I was retreating inwards. Deciding not to become the aggressors victim I decided that I would take photographs. This meant that I had to leave the block I lived on or venture away from the taxis I drove and take photographs of things that I liked. But what to do with these photos?

In my time out I had begun to work through blogging introductions.  Well be sitting on chair next to screen with determination to find out what blogging was. Now I found that the blogging is not enough.  I wanted to flex my newly honed skills. I just focused on various topics for the blogging.  Different topics different addresses.  Photographs were needed to compliment the blogs. 

Authenticity and ownership of the tangible photos had become important.

The garden was taking off. Great. Things I had been venturing out and doing before the melt down I had trouble getting back to.  But now I was getting fat again. So to was the dog.  Where I was able to hide behind the camera or the taxi drivers wheel as i ventured out into the world outside my melt down I now used the same principle with regard to my health.  By taking matters of the dogs health into my hands the dog[s] and I started walking.  Problem was a time factor.  Now we walk before 6.30 am in the morning.,  Just a the morning birds think about arising.  My eye stain lowers, my head clears and I breath in the early morning.  Then the cars start going to work.  But hay were fine.  Less stress more time. No people to bother me. Now I found I am actually beginning to shuffle faster up to hills in the morning.  Some might think to call this running but it's not.  I have to move faster at times or the dog will venture to another tree, blade of grass or other inquisitive smell.  Time delays mean that the dog does not want to finish the walk.  Indeed the right leg from the operation on the dogs knee will begin to play up.  So shuffle faster is what I do.

  Still I find I am juggling around the time a bit.  But we manage.  Less money but more time to find reduce sales items in the food line.

Problem is most of the food's on the shelves I refuse to purchase as I am now a diabetic with hopefully the ability to be diet managed.  Hence the vegetable, herb and flower garden essentially was exposed through recognising a primitive survival need.

But to get the good photos I am venturing away from the house and garden, dogs and charity work. Into the country, through the cities and farm land I am traveling. Down through the markets I was familiar with another life time ago. From the years before the vehicle accident that changed my life.


If I could get memories back from over nineteen years ago [deep memory loss ] caused through the truck hitting my vehicle the I would get out there and intergrate myself back into a community that has a life through out the day.

So those damming words about stress have been a turning point in my life.  They in fact were words I needed to hear.  I now had a direction.  A focus of where my life direction would travel.  So many paths , many different journeys later I was able to make choices and enjoy the ride.