El Malabarista

I have a reputation in my work as a juggler, given that I am working simultaneously at four different sites with ten clients or more.  I often enjoy this.  It keeps me busy, engaged, and my days and weeks at work are full of variety.  Because of the flexible nature of my scheduling I can often graft in activities that I enjoy and benefit from: walking and drawing.  These activities never conflict with my professional assignments and sometimes can be easily integrated into my duties with my clients.  I try to map out my day in the early morning to ensure that I can fit in a minimum of five miles of walking (ten thousand steps) every day.  I also try to splice in perhaps up to an hour in a local coffee shop with my sketchbook. 

If I may bore you with the quotidian details of my last three workdays, Gentle Reader, you will have a better idea of what I am saying, should you succeed in staying awake throughout.  On Monday, I had the morning free, as I have lately.  I did have a couple of errands, including reloading my transit card at the local Canada Line station, then I walked to the lovely garden terrace of the café at the art gallery which I delight in referring to as El Jardin a los Burgueses, or the Bourgeois Garden.  Lounging on comfy patio furniture surrounded by flowers and fresh air and classical music I enjoyed an iced Americano while developing a new drawing.  I then walked home where I stitched up the strap on my knapsack as it was starting to come loose, had a light lunch then walked over to see my first client.  Altogether that was five miles of walking.  I arrived early for my professional appointment so I drew some more and continued to draw for a while visiting my client (he has expressed interest and comfort in seeing me do art while we visit.  I always ask the clients' permission in this).  My client and I walked another one and a half miles.  Later, following my last client for the day I spent forty minutes and a bit in another local café with my sketchbook
Here is the bird of which I am doing a series of seven drawings (I'm on number three right now)

   It's a Resplendent Quetzal from Central America.

When I arrived home I did my day's paperwork, cooked and fed myself, and relaxed for the evening with reading, art and writing my blog, as well as a YouTube video (a child of the Sixties', I am watching the Lucy Show videos these days)

Tuesday, yesterday, I got up at the crack of dawn and left at seven am for a long walk of some five miles, stopping for an hour in a café with my sketchbook then to my first work assignment of the day.  On my way to my following client on the other side of town I stopped in one of my mental health teams to drop off and photocopy a huge wad of paperwork.  After seeing my client I met with another client in a café where we did art together, allowing me yet more time for my quetzal drawing.  Following a quick grocery shopping trip at the nearby No Frills I read on the bus a novel in Spanish by a Colombian author, Laura Restrepo, a well-known Colombian journalist.  It is titled un relato de un entusiasmo, or, a tale of a passion, and touches on the civil war in Colombia during the Eighties'. I often read in Spanish while on the bus during my work day.  During the long walks I can often take before or between clients I also practice Spanish on the phone, talking to an imaginary friend in Spanish.  Anyone hearing me will think that I'm either a Canadian talking on the phone to a Hispanic friend, or that I'm a very pale Mexican.  At home, following a quick snack I had an enjoyable two hour coffee visit with a friend of mine who is on his way first to Rome, then to Ontario to conclude his theological studies as he prepares for the Anglican priesthood I returned home where I finished my paper work, ate, wrote in my blog, texted with a friend in El Salvador, read a bit, saw part of a Spanish language video then crawled into bed where I read for a while from another book in Spanish, the Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Sieg Larrson in Spanish translation.

Today I left this morning an hour and a half earlier than usual, got off the bus early to walk two miles and arrived an hour early at the café where I was meeting my client.  I spent the hour drawing, met with my client, then went to a staff meeting at the Team across the street, then bussed to my next meeting in the area of Vancouver General Hospital with the clinical supervisor and my new supervisor.  I phoned my last client who cancelled and I took a long three mile walk in a beautiful neighbourhood while practicing Spanish on the phone.  I stopped in a café to do some more art then bussed home.

I have to admit that I don't have a lot of energy right now.  I simply napped in my recliner chair, cooked, ate, did paperwork and avoided a Skype visit with a language partner in Latin America, listening, as always, to the many fascinating programs on CBC Radio, watched yet another Lucy Show video, painted a little and now I am finishing this blog post.  I will soon be going to bed.

These are very typical work days for me.  I get a lot done, I enjoy being busy and I adore my clients as well as feeling honoured to help participate in their journey towards recovery.  I never feel overwhelmed by it all.  I m El Malabarista, I am the Juggler.  I maintain that calm silent centre in the midst of the swirling balls, the whirling electrons, the revolving planets.  I am not a god, nor a divinity, but I do have a sense of the divine presence keeping me calm and grounded while active and dynamic.  I am greatly encouraged by the praise and support from my many supervisors and bosses.  That is all very nice.  A bloody fat raise to a living wage would be absolutely awesome.