I’ve always been resilient when it comes to change. I’ve mixed it up all of my life. At the age of 16, I craved independence and left home, only to go back 4 weeks later with my tail firmly between my legs. I was 19 before I had another go, and this time I made it to independent living. I was happy and carefree by the seaside. I spent a couple of years living like that, building my relationship and making the friendships that I still hold dear to me today. I absolutely loved the freedom, my playground and playmates.
We all started to get married, get jobs, start businesses and begin to build our careers. The social and friendship landscapes were ever changing and the people moved to where their opportunities lay. We decided to move to Scotland and follow more structured careers. I moved from pressing bridal bouquets and repairing stained glass to moving around the corporate, public service and political arenas and he swapped his milkman’s uniform for a police one.
I wrote the following two posts this year and these bring us ‘bang up to date’ with where we are now and what the next big change is going to be. It is the story of how we managed it without having a breakdown or a midlife crisis.
Written April 2018
We were Thatcher’s children. We ran businesses, made money, raved and demanded personal time and space in our lives. We rode the wave until we reached a point in life where we could make choices. We sat down one night to talk about our next move. “you’ll laugh” he said, “but I’ve always carried this vision of me, as a policeman in uniform, kneeling down beside a German Shepherd”. I never saw that one coming!
We moved to Scotland and 10 years after he joined Strathclyde Police, we got the photograph of him kneeling beside his first Police dog and now to the point of the tale.
He loves his job and is damn good at it with a specialism that has had him interact with Presidents, Politicians and Royalty. He’s worked at Wimbledon, the Olympics, the G8 summit and the Commonwealth Games and last week he was told that his tenure working with the dogs was on a one year notice to leave.
To ensure that opportunities are available within this specialism a policy exists that states that the tenure of a dog handler will be 10 years or the working life of 2 police dogs, whatever comes first. This is always a traumatic time for the handlers and over the years it has given rise to some crazy shit, and how’s my husband doing? He’s in a good place thanks. We haven’t gone down any of the rabbit holes that people can go down when an enforced change takes away their life’s passion. He’s walking with his head up, has not engaged with any ‘Thinking’ and is looking to enjoy the year that he still has left with a team of people he revels in the company of.
Our guiding principle is “don’t make shit up”. We work with what we know and don’t try to guess at what we don’t know. We choose to focus on our blessings and appreciate what we have had and still have. We walk towards our future and not away from our past. Tonight, we were back in the kitchen discussing our future. What does he want to do next? Well, all I can say is….. I didn’t see that coming!
Written Nov 2018
For those who wondered what happened next…..
I wrote this a while ago. It had a whimsical ending which was in part way born from me thinking it was good prose, but it was partly born from that old Scottish attitude of ‘don’t tell anyone in case it doesn’t happen’. It’s the latter part that got me thinking, I recognised that this was an out of date response that was generated from a place of fear, and so
I cast it out and to the complete discomfort of my husband, I began to tell our nearest and dearest what we wanted to do. I had a compulsion to get it out there so it became the reality.
Today I sat in my camper van by the harbour in Stornoway, dog at my feet and a book in my hand and my mind still and perfectly at peace.
My husband had left me 20 minutes earlier to go into an interview. We’d just spent 2 days sitting by the Atlantic ocean, setting our mind on the fact that this job and he were a perfect match. What they had to offer and what we had to give, fitted like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. When they sat to speak to him they thought so too and offered him the job on the spot
One hour later I was sitting with his new boss, drinking coffee, eating cake and being told what a welcome addition we would be to the island community we were looking to support. I was then introduced to everyone as the wife of the new community police officer for the Outer Hebridian island of Barra. Dream attained, it is as we say it will be.
I am told that landing on Barra is one of the most amazing things to do. The flights times coincide with the tides so that the planes can land on the beach. It’s on many a person’s bucket list of things to experience and for business, I am going to experience it a lot without any buckets involved.
So, Love from the Isle of Barra, population 1100 and we hope we meet them all.
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