Wednesday, October 14, 2009

picking up the phone


I hear my phone ring. I look at the clock. Its just past 9. Its my supervisor calling. He would only call me this late if it was important. I hate talking on the phone. He knows this. It must be important. I debate as the phone rings again whether or not i should answer.
"Hello."
"Hey Carmen..."
and so tonight's adventure began. We drove out together to go and pick up a teen who was at the hospital. We drove them home, stopping for tim hortons on the way, the kid hadn't eaten that day yet.
On the way back home my supervisor and I talked about how we are the same in the way that our passion for what we do sometimes gets in the way of our work ethic. In other words, we both have the tendency to sprint and then burn out, sprint then burn out, and so on. We prayed for help. Tonight answering the phone, then going out was the best decision, but there have been other nights when I should have stayed home and gotten some much needed rest.
Answering the phone can be on of the most consistent tough choices I have to make in this work. To answer, or not to answer, that is the question. When a kid calls, and they are upset about something at 1am, do I talk it out for 2 hours or ask them if we can talk about it in the morning? Depends on what the crisis is. Its hard to make that judgment call in the moment. I'm learning, because I want to be around for these kids for the long term.

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