Christmas Delivery At The Home

This year I moved into a senior assisted living building.Most of the folks here are mobile some more than others.Some are bored or perhaps just have a few bad habits.Whatever the cause one of them almost rained on my Christmas parade!
My sister sent me a parcel.It arrived here at 6:30 pm while I was watching a movie with head phones on.I heard a knock and went to the door to find my neighbour hold the parcel in her had saying "I think this belongs to you,I met some woman walking off down the hall with it,I was on my way to the laundry and the parcel was at your door on the floor, when I came from the laundry it was walking down the hall in some dark haired woman's arms, so I said to her isnt that the same parcel that was at my neighbors door a few minutes ago? The woman handed over the parcel and quickly walked off.
Thankgod for assertive neighbors.

steppings stones talk 30 year celebration

In the words of the modren philosopher John O Donahue : "The world is not decided by by action alone it is by consciousness and spirit.The Spirit of a times in creditably subtle yet a huge powerfull force and is comprised of the mentality and spirit of all individuals, together.
So we were in the right time and place in 1987 for change.
On December 20th 1985 Bill C49 was hot off the press.Honorable John Crosby Minister of Justice explained it to the house of commons."the slow way is the only way here,education,a changed social out look and reorganization of economic conditions;with these we may remove such causes within our control.
Through the work of the Halifax Police commission and the Elizabeth Fry society the Stepping Stones program was born, to create a bridge,to build a bridge, an arc out to the women in the sex-trade industry and from the streets if they so choose to exit at any time of day or night.
Stepping Stone was to be a user directed service.For the women to be involved in the daily running of the service was a very innovative idea in this area at the time.
We faced challenges like not having enough funding.I remember the director practically dragging the Honorable Terry Donahue out of Province House one Friday afternoon to sign our purposal for 28,000.00.Our salaries for the that year.
When a program like stepping stones is started up it brings out the chaos in people so we had a lot of sensationalism to overcome.
We didnt have any experience, so Karen and I decided to take our direction from the women we were working with,and Jane, and Duma adopted this ideal to the stroll on Citadel Hill later on  Luckily by this time we had developed a board of directors and a director who supported our ideas and recommendations.
When the women didnt have time to eat we set up sandwiches at the old YWCA on Barrington Street part of the stroll.
When children were placed in foster care a three hour drive into the Valley we drove them.
When they needed condoms for free we had them.
We started a bad trick list where a woman could report client abuse
We set up  BBQs in the backyard at the resource center, so the women could network with each other in a non judgmental non contriving atmosphere.
We set up appropriate appointments with relative services, as far away as Calgary in our relocation program in 1988.
Both Karen and I believed that is the Stepping Stone service was to survive those early years we needed a sex trade worker on the board of directors to bring further clarity.
We almost lost our jogs that day implementing this process.
We were a voice for the voiceless and at times we had plenty to say.Church groups, and University classes would invite us to give talks.They all asked the same question and we always had the same answer."What do you talk about to a prostitute.Our reply was always "hairstyles,the cost of bread,childcare,who you going to vote for this year, all the same stuff we all talk about."
Once a year the media would descend to exploit and sensationalize the sex trade on the evening news.One year we found this out and we were astonished at the response from 90 percent of the women"Oh my god my mom"We were humbled by the protective instincts these women felt for their families
In the eighties the women suffered mistreatment from fosh week university students,police deterrents,.& media mystique. Kids would drive by with their parents and throw pennies at them.
Once the women started networking they started to breakdown old false beliefs about themselves and the sex trade.They stared sharing with themselves and with us.
They stared to show up to get warm and have a bite to eat both at the Resource center on Maitland Street and the YWCA on Barrington Street, we knew our services were vital,and valid in the community.
I remember one woman had been very sick a few nights,so I called her one morning to see how she was doing .
She panicked,"OH Kate was I wrong was I suppose to come in or something?"After I reassured her this was a simple follow up call to see if she was ok .She replied "No one has ever called me before like that"! Advocacy work for these women was very new.
Some social workers are still making it impossible for sex trade workers to receive their monthly entitled allowances.Many of them harbor personal agendas towards these women.
That's what we are all here tonight for, to continue reaching out to continue to listen to respond and encourage the voices of sex trade workers in our community of Halifax and across Canada.
I believe the sex trade workers of Halifax and Canada are bilding a bridge between the judicial and healthcare systems, its just a matter of time and we shall see affordable housing and relative healthcare for these women and their families
Im so very honored to speak with you all tonight, to share about this magnificent time in my life,our history and the Stepping Stones Program.
Thankyou all for being here.

The House on the Hill

The house on the hill with a porch is always not far from my heart.It sat like a beacon of light in mom mind as a kid.I could see it’s lights from miles away down the four miles of hills as we drove into the Mines road on our way home from town.
The house built by Uncle Joe back in the turn of the 19th century was very adquate as a small dwelling or a cottage if we were in England.It had roses,apple trees in the orchard,a back wood porch,and a pump in the yard.The yard had a barn.It looked very much like a little Cape Cod style home.
The roof was black and the trim was black but the house was always white.Long white steps draped the fron doorway up into a porch that ran all the way from one side to the other.The walls were windows,large and wonderful toma child for,through these very windows was a world of sunlight laughter with friends and hours of play, from school, to angry ministers,actors in a play with my sister,or being a mommy with a doll carriage on the old style furniture.I spent hours here in communion with homeless,safeness,imagination,and tranquility’s delights.There was a habit of removing the windows in the summer time and putting in screens . it was so very hot in summer here, I loved to come from my bed and rest there some nights as the upstairs was even hotter in August.
I would sit here and wait for my dad to drive in the driveway from work sometimes I’d get on his knee and steer the car up the long circular driveway to the back door.I liked to,carry his lunch bucket.I knew someday I would carry a lunch bucket to the house.
The house with the porch knew us many abundant times and some not so abundant as we loved our way through the many ups and downs of life’s journey,walking people in and out of the,house.
Today the house on the hill with the sun pore h is still there,it’s style is unchanged, it’s lands are pretty bald of beauty no roses no apple trees, but one thing is for sure it’s will stay on my,memory and my should as a temple of grace,land of innocence blessed by youth in the house on the hill with a porch.

Mid winter blues are not easy to stay out of,if now when one is grieving,I do not have friends for supper,rest up from a flu and get ready to plant new spring seeds. It’s gray days but not everyday some shine today,it’s getting light longer but not quit long enough or fast enough,makes pacing onself very difficult especially when one lives in a basement apartment, where light is limited and getting out after a flu is not on ones mind.
The cat seems to be coping very well.He sleeps through it mostly, maybe one may fair more well by following his example. Im to curious and to mouthy to do so.
I haven’t seen my little Greek brothers for a few weeks either. Im sure they are skipping well at school and flying through Greek classes.He did say he may not be over for awhile last time I saw them.Someting about Greek classes.I do so very much love to spend time with them on most days.
The mail is mostly on my mind although the mail lady we had last summer is gone.This guy seems useless, for the most part, but my T4 slips have found me now for 67 years so I’ve no doubt all is going to gods plan and universal order.
Have a great winter see you in the sun,flowers and dreams,I’d sunporches and mountainsides and sea.