AUTUMN OR FALL, DECIDE IF YOU WISH by Howard Diamond
September 25, 2021
Is it autumn already? As Brian Hyland began his song, “Tho we gotta say goodbye for the summer” but it will return again in nine months. However, the seasons are moving and some baseball teams are getting ready for the playoffs and American Professional Football started last month. Soon the leaves on the trees will come out in different colors and eventually fall to the ground. Not long from now, snow will be on the streets. Of course, let us not rush it, because the white stuff comes quickly enough. Looking at the future one day at a time might be a better way, since that is what happens whether we like it or not. For summer 2021 and as in the above-mentioned song concludes with, “Sealed With a Kiss”.
Hey everyone! Has anyone noticed, The Academy of Peer Services website has a modern new and improved look? Let’s hope and I hope that these revisions are for the better. “She’s got the look” lyrics are used several times in the 1988 song by the Swedish pop duo, Roxette. Maybe the Academy of Peer Services also has the look.
By the day this is published, all the kinks will be worked out and people are using the new and improved site. Of course, I am not talking about the rock group, “The Kinks”, but the issues with the coursework classes. “Try to remember the kind of September,” from the initial song in the longest running off-broadway musical comedy called The Fantasticks, portrays the reflecting on the end of summer, very well.
During the middle of September, New York Peer Specialists trek upstate to a three-day conference to learn about changes and fortify their knowledge of the Mental Health System. Over the last two years, this conference was done virtually. Way back in the year 1597, Sir Francis Bacon wrote, “Knowledge is Power”. Almost three centuries later, British Politician Lord Acton stated, “Absolute power corrupts absolutely”.
These statements are just for everyone to ponder, or think about, perhaps, not. Enough of this heavy stuff.
Peer Specialists just like most people want to learn and to be trained for something. At the Academy of Peer Services, there are a multitude of on-line classes that can be taken to gain insight on what and how one becomes a New York State Certified Peer Specialist. Since last November, I have been a Certified Peer Specialist. Each term affords me and all of the Peers out there, the opportunity to take new and exciting courses. A commercial once said, “Try it, you’ll like it”.
One of the best parts of doing the courses at the Academy is completing each of them at your own pace. Like Fleetwood Mac sang, “Go your own way”. Also, Burger King’s slogan was, “Have it your way”. Now the saying is, “Be your way”. Everything happens in its own time and we cannot rush it. Now we have another change of season, whether we like it or not.
Remember, always be grateful for what we have now, because we cannot alter what is going to happen and try to remain positive as much as one can. Yes, I am aware that this is not always easy, especially for me. Most of the time, I am focusing on the present and what I can do, not my past negativity nor what I did not do nor I am projecting my future on what I am about to do. I say, “Let your future be your present because you cannot modify any of your past”. Of course, that does mean, I think about my significant other Maureen. I love you, I miss you and I still wish you were here. Happy Autumn. See you in the NewsBlogs.