Christmas Eve – a night of expectation!

Do you remember Christmas Eve when you were a kid?  Hard to go to bed because Santa Could Be Landing On The Roof!!

Today it’s Christmas Eve and I’m holding my breath for the New Year with the same sort of excitement I had for Christmas when I was a child…like a wonderful new blank book to write in, all clean and fresh!  This coming year holds all that, and more.

I’m hoping for a few things to come to pass – peace, yes, rest for the weary, giggles for the sad, and fulfilment for the empty.  And for me? More to learn, more to question, more fun!

Pre-Christmas gratitude – 5 things I’m grateful for

In these couple of days before Christmas, it’s traditional to review some of the ‘best of’ 2008. It’s been just over a year since I started this blog, and the topic list and readership has grown a whole lot!

What am I grateful for in 2008?

1. Teamwork – the people I work with are fantastic. You can’t work alone in pain management IMHO,  a team of like-minded people to support you both professionally and personally just can’t be beaten.  I take my hat off to the team at Burwood Pain Management Centre who keep me honest, deflate my ego (gently), cushion my falls, keep me standing and give me inspiration to keep on caring about what I do.
2. Motivation – using motivational approaches like motivational interviewing to help people make their own choices rather than remaining ambivalent.  Whatever the choice, it’s easier to make changes once you’re moving than remain stuck.  I’m grateful for the sense of freedom that using motivational approaches has given me, and that I’ve been able to apply it in my work.  Now if only it could work with my kids?!
3. The magic of the interweb – and so many dedicated bloggers. I find it unbelievable that there are so many people who spend time writing intelligent, interesting, provoking and inspiring posts on topics dear to my heart – and it’s all free (provided you can get on the internet).  There are so many topics to choose from, and the quality can be stunning.  I’m not a ‘Web 2.0’ kind of person, and I’m not about to rave about the wonders of interactivity, I’m simply awed at how many people spend time putting up resources so the rest of us can find them.

Friday funny

The most popular search term to reach my blog, especially over the past fortnight, is ‘Friday funny’. Why? I have no idea – this is a pain blog all right?!!

Anyway, just so I can continue with the tradition, here are a couple of pictures from my intray..

Merry Christmas!

And don’t we deserve it!

Kiwi Christmas is always something special – long hot early summer days, cold ham and chicken, salads and minted new potatoes!

I’ll be taking a brief break from posting just for a couple of days.  I hope you’ll keep coming back – and if you can’t make it because you’re away – have a GREAT time!  You can always use RSS feed above if you don’t want to miss any posts.