It’s all in your p.o.v..changing perspectives

Today is likely to be one of the hottest days on record in Adelaide. It is also going to be the hottest day of any city in the world today, according to the forecasters. How do people handle something like this?

The answer lies largely in how people are situated, and what their outlook on life is.

My neighbours, who are a group of single men living in a Share House with a couple of bedroom airconditioners, were out early this morning polishing the old Mercedes when I went for my ‘diabetes stroll’. We exchanged a few words re the weather, and one of them said, ‘We’re off to Africa, it’s cooler there! Want to come with us?” Here is my mental image of what my day would look like if I’d accepted..

Africaaa

Africaaa

The Adelaide City Council has opened the air conditioned  city bus shelter 24 hours all week, & invited the homeless to sleep there. They are providing free cold water. The Charities are working hard too, free lunch & a movie every day. And some of the homeless are cheerfully heading to the free Libraries after the movie, so they can stay in the a/c there. The city is doing its best to look after the less fortunate. I saw a homeless man last night on the TV news being interviewed- he was remarkably cheerful, optimistic, & resilient in his outlook.

Throughout the State, Volunteers are donning fireproof clothing, or volunteering to provide drinks & food for firefighters. With a number of firefronts to manage, people are managing on minimal sleep & in appalling conditions to ‘serve & protect’ the lives & property of strangers. How do they keep it up?

In their personal lives, people are offering help to family, friends & strangers. They are providing shade & water for wild birds & animals, sharing taxis with strangers & space in their homes for neighbours without a/c. They are calling elderly relatives with reminders to ‘keep cool, keep drinking’. They are voluntarily using less electricity in their homes by cooling only necessary areas, in order to avoid the dreaded ‘load shedding’ that threatens.

I have been thinking about this today in the context of the Global online diabetes community. More and more I am seeing the support given to other ‘people with diabetes’: by strangers to each other, simply because we share a common bond: we have diabetes, or we are caring for someone with diabetes- or both. Because it’s one thing to be a caring Health professional, & very important too. And it’s another thing to be able to ‘speak with’ and be heard by ‘someone like me’- someone who is also living this Diabetic life, every single day. Some of this occurs on Twitter, with many Diabetes related online communities. Others are comfortable on ‘bookface’, & we have special interest groups which you may find helpful yourself. Some are Open groups, you can simply join. Others are ‘closed’: that is for the protection of its members, who feel comfortable sharing worries & advice with others who are similarly placed with respect to diabetes. With the ‘closed’ groups, you can request to join, and a group Admin wil review your public profile, & possibly send you a clarifying question by PM.

Here are some of them:

diabetes.counselling

MenWithDiabetes

pregnancyparentingdiabetes

diabetesandfood

parents

diabetesweightmatters   ; ruraldiabetes/

You may be just the person who is needed in a Group: your perspective on your diabetes might be just what someone else needs to hear: we are all different, & we are all the same. No matter what type of diabetes you have, or how long you have had it, in this century, in the times we live in, we Diabetics have never been more connected with each other. We can give and find support like no one before us in the History of the World has been able to.

” All of us are human beings first. We are all sons, daughters, mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, grandparents, aunts and uncles, friends and lovers. We all laugh, cry, get angry, sad; worry and wonder what life is all about.

Then, we are people living with diabetes” Helen Edwards 

All of us are human beings first. We are sons, daughters, mothers, fathers, bothers, sisters, grandparents, aunts and uncles, friends and lovers. We all laugh, cry, get angry, sad, worry and wonder what life is all about. – See more at: /uncategorized/people-politics-and-pancreases/#sthash.GANsISUe.dpuf(people politics and pancreases)

(people, politics, and pancreases)

Helen Wilde

Helen has been the mother of a Type 1 diabetic since 1979, and has had Type 2 diabetes herself since 2001. She has been a Senior Counsellor with www.diabetescounselling.com.au since 2002.

 

of us are human beings first. We are sons, daughters, mothers, fathers, bothers, sisters, grandparents, aunts and uncles, friends and lovers. We all laugh, cry, get angry, sad, worry and wonder what life is all about. – See more at: /uncategorized/people-politics-and-pancreases/#sthash.GANsISUe.dpuf

All of us are human beings first. We are sons, daughters, mothers, fathers, bothers, sisters, grandparents, aunts and uncles, friends and lovers. We all laugh, cry, get angry, sad, worry and wonder what life is all about.

Then, we are people living with diabetes.

– See more at: /uncategorized/people-politics-and-pancreases/#sthash.GANsISUe.dpuf

All of us are human beings first. We are sons, daughters, mothers, fathers, bothers, sisters, grandparents, aunts and uncles, friends and lovers. We all laugh, cry, get angry, sad, worry and wonder what life is all about.

Then, we are people living with diabetes.

– See more at: /uncategorized/people-politics-and-pancreases/#sthash.GANsISUe.dpuf

All of us are human beings first. We are sons, daughters, mothers, fathers, bothers, sisters, grandparents, aunts and uncles, friends and lovers. We all laugh, cry, get angry, sad, worry and wonder what life is all about.

Then, we are people living with diabetes.

– See more at: /uncategorized/people-politics-and-pancreases/#sthash.GANsISUe.dpuf

5 Comments

  1. Sean on January 16, 2014 at 3:13 pm

    I work in a air conditioned cab because I’m a train driver and the only time I’m out of the cab is when I’m either refueling or when I’m not driving passenger trains I’m loading up my train with freight to go to Perth from Melbourne. Or from Perth to Melbourne. My outlook in life is enjoy it while you can because I do!.



    • helwild on January 16, 2014 at 3:18 pm

      Thanks Sean! For your service to the community as a Train Driver; much appreciated, & for your input & thoughts.

      I love train travel myself, & I think the view out of a train window is the best one of all for travelling with. It must be even better from your p.o.v.!

      I agree, ‘yesterday is gone, tomorrow may not come: enjoy today because it is all we have’ & ‘Life is for the Living’ as my 91 year old Mum tells me. 🙂
      Cheers
      Helen W



  2. Sean on January 16, 2014 at 3:58 pm

    It’s a whole lot different from the cab and I love my job and am lucky to have one because of my diabetes that is but I have proven to them that it’s a lot more stable then it used to be. And so they let me keep my license. And yes life is for living because yesterday has in fact gone and today is here. Tomorrow as I well know may never come and I have almost found that out the hard way several times in the past. But when a new day does arrive I cherish it and live it the best way I know how.



    • Sally on January 16, 2014 at 6:40 pm

      What a wonderful attitude Sean. Good on You! 🙂



  3. Sean on January 16, 2014 at 7:37 pm

    Thank you Sally. I have done what you advised me to do and so far I have had no more hypos upon wake up. I am happy with my life and I know it can be hard at first with Diabetes but with the helpful advice I get from all of the team here at Diabetes Counselling I have been able to gain much better control of my diabetes. I no longer see it as an illness but just a way of life and controlling it and eating the right foods taking my insulin checking my BGL’s and consulting with my medical professionals I’m able to better understand my diabetes and how to treat the hypos that I do get from time to time and the hypers from time to time I am able to better live my life and to enjoy it too. 🙂