02/05/2025
A story of growth:
When I started Hope Mentoring last year one of my first posts was about my clematis. It had been attacked by the snails in my garden and was looking a bit worse for wear. But my husband rescued it, potted it up, gave it some support, and the sun and the rain did their thing, and eventually it flowered. It was a thing of beauty, but it wore its scars because the snails still managed to get at the flowers.
Slowly over the last 8 months it has grown and matured. It went through a period where not much seemed to be happening and then in the Spring it had a huge growth spurt and we had to build some stakes around it to help it. With the support in place, and much higher than most of my garden pests can reach, it has confidently produced 4 beautiful and in tact flowers.
In my work, I have the privilege of working with young people and their families. Sometimes they are struggling and their scars are more obvious. At times like this there seems to be little growth, in fact it can sometimes seem like things have slipped back a little.
But then other times there is a period of rapid growth, when things seem to be going amazingly well and everyone notices it.
What matters I think is the general direction of travel. Even if the apparent growth is slow, if it is mostly going in the right direction, that's amazing.
One thing that strikes me is the difference the right environment and the right support can make.
Another thing is that in a period of rapid growth, when the change is noticeable, we need to keep the support in place, keep nurturing, and meeting needs, but I'm aware that is often when support is withdrawn or reduced in some of the systems we work in.
