To all our beloved patients, Well, 2021 really provided a smorgasbord of emotions, and with this newsletter being themed around gratitude, I give thanks for the Darling Health Community. Despite missing contact with you all, I feel so grateful for the fact I was still able to experience a very authentic sense of connection and community even though it may have been via a phone or a screen. I am also beyond grateful for the Darling Health Team, our wonderful practitioners and staff who rallied and pivoted and just got on with running the clinic through a rapid re-design. I especially want to say an extra loud thank you to the fabulous Caitlin, Kate, Adrienne, Phoebe and Gaby who kept the clinic running despite so many lockdown impediments whilst their captain abandoned ship to watch the birds and sky up north!
I would also like to acknowledge the many patients who faced difficult news, grief, a diagnosis, and to express my gratitude that you have allowed me into these conversations and to be a part of your care team. I also give thanks for the people in your support team, your partners, your families and your sisterhood. I would also like to acknowledge the women who have decided to donate their eggs to other women or couples, who have come to the end of their fertile road. These women are out there, quietly offering the most blessed and hopeful gift. I am grateful for them, their gift to our community and the reasons for their decision.
For me personally this year, I have so much to be grateful for, but mostly I loved the absence of the rush that lockdown provided. I found myself thinking, dreaming and wandering more than ever before. Many of you may know that my husband decided to head to the Northern Rivers to follow a creative dream and open a new business in lockdown! Whilst it may not be the most conventional of marriages to have a husband 750km up the highway, I have loved watching the seasons, the pairing of all the birds and the fruiting of all the trees over the last few months when I am there. We have been blessed to eat avocados, bananas, custard apples, passionfruit, tamarillos, buckets of herbs, tomatoes, leafy and salad greens, African berries (with supposedly the highest vitamin C content of any plant on the planet), lemons, limes, oranges, blood oranges and apples, all from his backyard! Whilst there we also adopted a new morning ritual that we named ‘bird sky’ – not that original I know. Bird sky however meant that the first 15 minutes and cup of tea each day was spent watching the sky and to experience all its colours and birds. Our bird sky mornings helped us find moments of reverence and gratitude in a world that was feeling wobbly and uncertain.
Thank you for trusting us with your care and I wish you all a peaceful and lazy festive season, and in the eloquent words of William Wordsworth I am planning to “ Rest and to be Thankful”.
Much Love, Amanda xx
Comments