Saturday, November 23, 2013

FAMILY WELLNESS AND TRUST

FWR Says: Risks in Good Families - Trust

Here we have a tricky matter. Some folks are more trusting than others. You can have it and lose it. If you have it, it can grow with time and experience. How does it get started? Maybe an attempt to understand it will help.

Trust is acceptance and respect without knowledge. Trust happens despite lack of information. Trust therefore, is a gift to someone out of the blue. It just happens. Where it goes depends on the relationships and experiences that follow.

A newcomer was greeted into a closely knit church group. The sponsor was gracious as was the group. During a conversation with the sponsor, he pointed out that it would take time to get trust from the group. The newcomer was taken aback. He said to himself, this is an ingrown group if it cannot extend trust to newcomers.

There is a unique type of trust which is found primarily in marriage. It is a deep trust that stays trusting despite bad experiences. That kind of trust does not shy away from the facts. It lives on openness. If the facts are not good then there is either forgiveness or loss of trust.

From this we see that trust is a precious but fragile matter. It calls for much from the giver. The payoff is another person who becomes trusting – with both enjoying a new sense of security.

FWR Says: Trust starts with a lot of giving and risk - the payoff is big!

Sunday, November 10, 2013

FAMILY WELLNESS AND THE COMMUNITY

FWR Says: The Risks in Good Families – The Community?

The family gets all its life from the community.

From taxes, we get: roads, police, fire protection, health care, schools, colleges, sanitation, and the military.

From business, we get: food, clothing, drugs, beauty aides, funerals, flights, trains, videos, TV, phones, casinos, entertainment and the internet.

From the volunteers, we get: art, music, drama, boys and girls clubs, YMCA, YWCA, sports (hockey, baseball, soccer, football), flowers, books, stamps and conservation clubs, churches, camps, service clubs, neighbourhood watch, seniors programs, and A.A.

From the above we seem to have three very big and different family resources: The Basics, The Human Services and The Quality of Life Resources.

Please note that quality of life resources come from volunteer efforts. In Canada, there are 165,000 non-profit organizations. One tenth of Canadians volunteer at least a half a day a week (Nine tenths don’t).

The quality of life in a free society comes from volunteer efforts. Most of our present human services originated by volunteers. The family that doesn’t volunteer needs to think about its quality of life and that of its neighbours.

FWR Says: A family finds its meaning and its wellness through community volunteering?