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- John of Caloundra on The big freeze Lads, Lads! Before you congratulate yourselves any further I suggest you look up the following:-- the difference between ... more
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- James W on Price wars illegal? 'neccessary' rather, my bad.mick, it's been suggested to me that eluding to another's medical condition in an effort to cast ... more
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- Richard on Damned dam inquiry @Cry,Somewhere my communication got scrambled.I never said the people of the floods were lazy.I was referring to the "whats ... more
- James W on The big freeze Richard, you will see a lot more with your eyes open. more
- Richard on The big freeze Yeah mick, They may fool ALL of the people , SOME of the time.They may even fool SOME of the people, ALL of the time.But ... more
- Richard on Price wars illegal? @Mick, I can't believe that he is so willing to give up Aussie made produce.Doesn't sit well with me."If you can't beat them ... more
- James W on Bligh government plans Ronny multi 'Bligh's Day are numbered' with Black Caviar this Saturday and you might get odds of 25 to 1 on if your lucky.In ... more
- James W on Price wars illegal? The reason someone would feel it nesseccary to comment another's medical condition when it wasn't on topic is a more ... more
- CRY FREEDOM on Flood class action? @BockoWivenhoe was built to handle such rain fall. It was built to prevent a 74 flood again, not unleash it on us. No matter ... more
- CRY FREEDOM on Damned dam inquiry @RichardI am a tax payer who sits on the conservative side of politics and would drive a stake through my heart before I ... more
- CRY FREEDOM on Ipswich looking for compensation @BockoWalk a mile in the Engineer shoes, I think not, they are paid the big bucks to protect us from what they unleashed on ... more
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Welcome to Holland
WELCOME TO HOLLAND
by Emily Perl Kingsley.
c1987 by Emily Perl Kingsley. All rights reserved
I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability - to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It's like this......
When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip - to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting.
After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, "Welcome to Holland."
"Holland?!?" you say. "What do you mean Holland?? I signed up for Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy."
But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in Holland and there you must stay.
The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place.
So you must go out and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.
It's just a different place. It's slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you've been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around.... and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills....and Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts.
But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy... and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say "Yes, that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I had planned."
And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away... because the loss of that dream is a very very significant loss.
But... if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things ... about Holland.
