31 for 21: Meaning It

*I've joined a blogging challenge for the month of October: Blog every day in October in honor of National Down Syndrome Awareness Month (Down syndrome is medically defined as Trisomy 21, and there are 31 days in October, hence the name 31 for 21). My posts will not necessarily be about Down syndrome, but I am writing as a person who 1) loves many people w/Down syndrome and other disabilities and 2) desires for others to be able to see what I see: remarkably unique people with much to offer to the world* 

I want to be a person who means what I do.  Not just a person who means what I say, but a person who means what I do.

I see varying degrees of this all around me.  I see staff members who do the bare minimum of what is asked of them, and that only after being reminded/badgered/threatened (thankfully these staff are not ones who regularly work in my room).  I see staff members who get in moods to mean what they do, who go above and beyond for a little while, but are also quite content to not really do anything most of the time.

I see other staff members who are excellent in a certain area - they might prepare lunches and change diapers like their lives depend on it - but they do so in such a way that it is quite clear they are rushing to be done as quickly as possible.  The clients become tasks instead of people.

I see elements of this in myself.  I want to do everything by the book and sometimes this happens at the expense of spending real quality time with anyone.

And today I saw the sweetest example of one of my staff members who means what she does.  She has taken on this little project, completely of her own volition, that I think is simply phenomenal.  Two of our clients have spoken of missing loved ones who've passed away.  She is helping them to write letters to these loved ones.  These are clients who can't actually write on their own, and she is taking the time - a tremendous amount of time - to help them do this and NOT just do it for them.  She is first having them dictate what they want to say, helping them to recall sweet memories from their pasts, and she is writing this all down on a sheet of paper.  Then she is having them copy what she's written onto another sheet, so it can be their own writing.  Both clients require hand-over-hand assistance to do this.  Then her eventual goal is to bring in helium balloons, at her own expense, and have them each release a balloon after reading the letter aloud.  She started this project last week, with a client to whom she's essentially "assigned" this quarter.  And today I caught her doing it with another client.  And this client was so proud, and so glad, to be doing this.  And she wanted me to read the letter, and it was so very hard not to cry when I did.

I want to be this way.  I want to mean what I do.  I'm so glad to have this staff member who does.