The other day, a family that I’d worked with for a bit, but had to stop for a time got back in touch and asked if I’d work with them again. It was a no-brainer that I was clearly going to say yes! They are so lovely, as a family!
So I started working with them again and we had a good chat and catch up about the session, how they were and what the plan was for the coming weeks. We all realised just how busy everything has become and I am fully and insanely busy!
Life is a game of Tetris.
When I was younger, in the 90s, Tetris was hitting the mainstream. The little blocks that fell from the sky were fun and exciting. The challenge only existed in the computer (not even the internet!!) and when the blocks hit the top of the screen, the game stopped. So you never got too overwhelmed and you were always able to pause. You only ever got dealt as much as you could handle and once you hit the top, that was it. Luckily for me, life was like that when I was younger. I was in a very fortunate position never to have to deal with too much or to break under the load I was bearing. I was always lucky.
Tetris never got too big for me.
I’m lucky now that the Tetris of my life generally does fit well together. There are elements that don’t and that is rare, because me and Mr Dr Ross have got a pretty good tag-teaming system going on where we synchronise diaries. But there is still a whole load of stuff to juggle and fit in place.
There are people for whom this is not easy. There are people for whom the Tetris of life is too much, relentless and overpowering. That is not a nice place for them to be, and we need to make sure that folks in that situation have support. A safety net that won’t fail. But so many of our safety nets fail in this country and it makes me so mad. Resources are lacking, cases are reviewed and lessons learned etc.
But they’re not.
Life does not work itself out for so many people whose Tetris blocks get too big and overwhelm them. And there is nothing substantive to help people who get stuck.
And that is not right.
I need to do more about that. I’m not sure what yet, but I will do more.
