04/06/2026
I found this photo the other day while trying to declutter books and photos- we have boxes and boxes of prints and I did manage to chuck out some of the boring and blurry ones … but this one shocked me because I couldn’t remember seeing it before. I do remember being there though- it was about 12 years ago soon after I started selling my pottery online. I had to sell some because I was making too many pieces to keep, and I was making too many because I was using the making to destress from my job as a family support caseworker. We were living in Brisbane and I worked with an incredible bunch of support workers helping families to avoid being sucked into the child protection system. It was the most draining but rewarding work I have ever done and I loved it. But it was relentless- each caseworker was home visiting 16 families at any given time and we could work on anything the family needed so that meant homelessness, drug addiction, DV, disability, parenting, health and education needs and all sorts of intergenerational trauma. It meant remembering the names, ages, addresses, schools, and issues of up to 100 people at any one time. And thinking and worrying about them pretty constantly. At the same time our beautiful teenage daughters were bringing themselves up while I worked 50 hours a week and their father was writing a book and a PhD. Madness. Half the staff including me were made redundant after about 8 years in the job when management decided we all needed to have social work degrees. There is no greater reward than watching people achieve their goals, and the resilience of those parents I worked with still astounds me, but the work really fried my brain and it has never recovered! Anyway this photo really shocked me because on the outside I look so calm, and at peace. I still feel guilty that I no longer do such important work but looking back I have no idea how I did it. It may explain my obsession with making pots though!?
