Transitions III

This is the end of "official" week 1 in my new position. The emails are starting to make sense, and I'm beginning to wrap my head around the finer points of HUD and SAMHSA grants and their requirements. Sort of. (The SAMHSA grant is 191 pages long, just to give you an idea.)

I had a staff meeting and imparted my vision of a healing community that includes a positive, supportive environment for staff to work in. I think it went over well, but it may take some time to actually implement the rhetoric. We have already made small changes in the way we do things, such as erasing the lines between "staff" and "client" wherever we can and replacing the language with "community". I was also able to include the resident's opinion regarding a new hire and the return of a resident to the facility, which felt totally empowering.

In short, this week was FUN! I had 150,000 things to do each day, which keeps me interested, and I was able to just live in the moment and do my best with each thing that presented itself.

It is sunny and 43 degrees today, with daffodils, forsythia, and Camellia blooming! Last week we skied at Mt. Hood - the sky was an unreal deep blue set against the white peak of the mountain. I had to take off my goggles to make sure it was not an illusion. It doesn't get better than this...