The "gift" of a good question.

G'Day,

Over the years I have had the good fortune to have met and had conversations with many caring and insightful people.

When I noticed that a professor from an Australian university was coming to speak at a local conference of course I had to go and hear what they had to say ... and hear an Australian accent too!

Years later I reconnected with Professor Stuart Hill, University of Western Sydney. I appreciated that he was available to discuss the Masters of Arts in Social Ecology program of which he is the foundation chair. During that conversation Stuart said to me "What it is you want to give .... and was is it you want to receive?

What I wanted to give was a question I had often asked myself .... what was I meant to contribute to the amazing and complex world I had the good fortune to be living in? But want I wanted to receive ... wasn't that selfish to think about what I wanted to receive?

One of the things we discussed in the parent education facilitation training, that lead to my fulfilling experience of facilitating groups of dedicated parents, was finding balance in our lives. How much as parents are we giving and what do we need to ask for to replenish ourselves so we can keep giving .... create conditions for sustainability?

In all our relationships ... our relationships with other people, our environment, our community .... ourselves ... asking for what we want to receive and contemplating what we want to give is a question worth some meaningful exploration!

Thank you Stuart for the gift of a really good question.

Link to Masters of Arts (Social Ecology) , University of Western Sydney
http://handbook.uws.edu.au/hbook/course.asp?course=1579

Take care ... take heart ... Merinda