Plan2bReal

Jillian Ginn

Description

Jillian Ginn, educated in Education and Psychology, has faced a fairly tumultuous personal life. In 2006, Jillian Ginn''s only son was diagnosed as acutely autistic. In 2009, with her marriage in tatters, Jillian instigated what turned out to be an expensive and abrasive divorce. In 2014, her youngest daughter was hit by a car and acquired a brain injury. In 2015, her home was burnt to the ground and her beloved son died of smoke inhalation. In 2018, Jillian was diagnosed with a disability which inhibits her ability to walk independently. This is a must-read memoir, a collection of stories inspired by the author''s resilient, loving son. The strong message conveyed throughout focuses on learning to live in acceptance whilst fostering personal peace by giving with love, even when one''s life''s plans fail and trauma unexpectantly re-visits.

Informations

• Publié par: Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd
• Date de parution: 30 octobre 2019
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781528971096
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Plan2bReal
Jillian Ginn
Austin Macauley Publishers
2019-10-30
Plan2bReal About the Author About the Book Dedication Copyright Information © Acknowledgements Foreword Chapter 1 Train Spotting Tuesday the 1st of September, 2009 Chapter 2 Seeds of One of Them Acceptance Chapter 3 Before Children Chapter 4 Creating Home Chapter 5 A Son! A Family Growing Chapter 6 Learning to Juggle Chapter 7 Chasing a Diagnosis Chapter 8 Unwelcome Yet Sought Change Chapter 9 Acceptance and Urban Family Life Chapter 10 Tremendous Adjustments Chapter 11 One of Them Chapter 12 School Entry? Chapter 13 A Challenged Marriage Chapter 14 Single Mum 101 Chapter 15 Moving Chapter 16 Bunkering Down and Finally Settling In Edison – the coder Chapter 17 Community Finds Us Chapter 18 Day-to-Day Adjustments Chapter 19 Which Secondary School? Chapter 20 Idyllic Life Before Fire Friday, 12 June 2015 Saturday, 13 June 2015 Sunday, 14 June 2015 Monday, 15 June 2017 Chapter 21 Fire Chapter 22 Burying a Son Edison’s Eulogy Chapter 23 Forging On Chapter 24 Reality Bites Chapter 25 To Infinity and Beyond Jillian’s Ode to Edison Short Synopsis
About the Author
With tertiary qualifications in education and psychology, Jillian’s work over the last 25+ years has focused on complex ERP and CRM Projects, Business Management, Business Intelligence, Change & Talent Management, Sales Effectiveness, Executive Mentoring, Organisational Restructuring and Management Consulting. Jillian has applied her skills to roles requiring business, government, manufacturing and/or supply chain knowledge, interpersonal skills, problem-solving skills and communication skills in work which demands a comprehensive and integrated approach to business, and which has as its catalyst best practice and often IT related business change and improvement. Jillian has also served on and advised several boards. Today Jillian’s work focus is fostering resilience within others.
About the Book
Jillian Ginn, educated in Education and Psychology, has faced a fairly tumultuous personal life. In 2006, Jillian Ginn’s only son was diagnosed as acutely autistic. In 2009, with her marriage in tatters, Jillian instigated what turned out to be an expensive and abrasive divorce. In 2014, her youngest daughter was hit by a car and acquired a brain injury. In 2015, her home was burnt to the ground and her beloved son died of smoke inhalation. In 2018, Jillian was diagnosed with a disability which inhibits her ability to walk independently. This is a must-read memoir, a collection of stories inspired by the author’s resilient, loving son. The strong message conveyed throughout focuses on learning to live in acceptance whilst fostering personal peace by giving with love, even when one’s life’s plans fail and trauma unexpectantly re-visits.
Dedication
Dedicated to my inspiring daughters and the memory of my son, my greatest teacher.
Copyright Information ©
Jillian Ginn (2019)
The right of Jillian Ginn to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with section 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.
Any person who commits any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.
ISBN 9781528971096 (ePub e-book)
www.austinmacauley.com
First Published (2019)
Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd
25 Canada Square
Canary Wharf
London
E14 5LQ
Acknowledgements
I thank my mother and daughters for their support and the team at Austin Macauley for their professionalism, backing and dedication.

“Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.”
Thomas Edison
Foreword
Most of us face times when we feel like an outcast, different to others, traumatised or in my terminology, one of them . Many life experiences foster resilience. Perhaps we are presented with certain situations to teach us, please us, break us or grow us. Perhaps we are required to invent our own meaning. Do things happen for a reason or do we find reasons for things that happen in our lives? What matters is that we find reason. Throughout this memoir, I provide examples of how I have used the Plan 2b Real framework for navigating difficulties I’ve faced as I have journeyed through life. Plan 2b Real has guided me in how to aim to respond to unwelcome circumstances. I reveal many choices and actions which have contributed to consequences beguiling sporadic success, joy, sadness and failure. Experiences, thoughts and memories become foundational cornerstones, influencing how we navigate life and the degree to which we feel like we are one of us or one of them . We have control over little. We do have control over how we think, respond and react.
My son, Edison Hellmuth (2003–2015), was an inspiration. Edison came into this world without, I presume, existential angst. I doubt he understood the value of each minute of his time from the perspective of others. Regardless, he touched the lives of many. He was my greatest teacher, and throughout this book, I share many of the lessons my son graciously and most likely, inadvertently taught me. My son’s disability endeared him with the ability to be pure, honest and deeply loving. I will be forever grateful for the gift bestowed upon me in being Edison’s mother. I hope that for Ed, his passing was peaceful. I cannot know. My son’s death was not peaceful for those who loved him. Media fervour followed the dramatic events surrounding Edison’s death, providing a spotlight on the way Eddie chose to live. His manner of existing and interacting, whilst he was alive, taught many how to live in acceptance of what life serves us.
Not long after losing almost all our family belongings in a house fire, I came across A.B. Facey’s book, A Fortunate Life . The book had landed on a donated bookshelf. A.B. Facey lived a most challenging life by anyone’s standards. His humble, honest writing awakens the reader into an appreciation of the slightest graces. I perceived the gifted autobiography as a ghost-like article. My original copy was a much loved and dog-eared version. The replacement book was a gift from a brave person. Who would have the gall to donate such a book as this to me, at this time? I’d recently buried my son and didn’t yet own anything which I had purchased personally, post the devastation of our home. My grief regarding loss at the time permeated my every breath. Why was A.B Facey on my bookshelf? Eventually, I discovered that it was my mother who gave me this book; a lady who also experienced a fortunate life.
My mother’s life saw her as the carer of her husband, my father, since he was forced to retire from his successful civil engineering career at the age of 47 due to ill health. My father died in 2016, one week short of my parents’ 50th wedding anniversary and 6 months after the loss of their grandson, Edison. I’ve watched my mother struggle with migraines resulting from her broken neck which caused her to endure two life-threatening surgeries, many months of traction and the eventual trapping of body plaster which ran from her hips to her scalp. My mother managed these hurdles whilst raising a tribe of four, all the while contributing to society to the point of receiving an Order of Australia Medal (O.A.M). Yes, indeed, we are fortunate to have challenges to grow us in Australia, this most peaceful and beautiful country.
I prefer to thrive rather than to survive. I remember attending my first autism conference and being confronted by numerous stories of survival. In attendance were hundreds of people gathered together to learn how to deal with autism in their lives. Many of those whom I met were not a particularly happy mob. Following the conference, I decided to plan to be real and plan to thrive rather than simply survive. I’m still working on that… Over time, I developed a method of turning my life’s challenges into life’s rewards; what I refer to as Plan2 b Real. I have learned that I do not need to accomplish every aspect of Plan2 b Real to achieve a better outcome that might result if I were to simply follow my natural inclinations. My method inspires me to play out my life, submitting to personal responsibility rather than habitual tendencies developed within my comfort zone, which in the past included hoping to be perceived as one of us . A key aspect of Plan2 b Real in addressing challenges and trauma, is the b . To be is a verb. I am great at planning; I am still learning to b .

I share lessons I have learned via Plan 2b Real throughout this book, illustrating where I have refined, failed in, and succeeded with my method.
Generally, when we experience trauma or stress, the stressor wasn’t part of our PLAN . Thus, we experience emotional and/or physical Pain. We feel something is Lost ; something that was rightfully ours. In Angst, we question the meaning of the traumatic event and our role in it. Some people are more prone to anxiety than others. Understandably, those people often find themselves falling prey to A nxiety. For others, a plan gone wrong may give rise to feeling A ngry. Ultimately, when our PLAN fails, we can feel less worthy and as though our value has been reduced closer to N othing – to Nihilation . My natural trajectory when my plan goes horribly wrong is the Pain, Loss, Angst, Nihilation trajectory. I never planned to be one of them .
The mechanism I have adopted to counter my habitual response to stressors, is to b e REAL . By being REAL, I allow myself to adjust my plan and find myself living. REAL acknowledges that I am not in control and that life is more