Gina's Page

• Personal Details
• Family
• Work
• Home
• Faith
  

Personal Details

Having passed 40, I am now on the downhill stretch. I have short auburn and salt and pepper hair, pale Celtic skin with freckles and pond-water eyes and am 5ft 4 ins, with traditional curves and just a little extra padding.

Family

I live with my partner, Paul Bearne, in a 'Doolally House' in Wiltshire, England.

My daughter, Jessica, is now living away from home, studying Business and Marketing at university.

Work

I seem to spend my life doing jobs I know nothing about - it's more challenging that way! Having trained as a teacher, I analysed survey data for an international Management Consultancy, putting together surveys of pay and benefits. I learned all sorts of useful things but, after four years, moved to an import and wholesale company, constructing stock control systems, tracking royalty payments to Paddington Bear and Thomas the Tank Engine, and dealing with the complexities of import documentation and barter systems.

Motherhood rescued me from this madness and I spent the next five years much more creatively. Since returning to work, I have input data for Bell Fruit (Gambling Machines), written the appeal brochure for a children's hospital and other funding documents, enabled a Family Centre to take control of its destiny, developed adult education projects with some of the more excluded groups of women in our society, written for The Link, a community magazine and built web pages. [Link to a selection of my articles]

More recently, in August 2003, I was made redundant from my role as information officer for Kingshill Research Centre. This role made use of my writing abilities (newsletters, information leaflets, reports, etc.), web knowledge (for our own web site and two other web projects) and community development skills (working with carers and patients and developing work with community groups to increase knowledge about dementia and memory problems).

After a year punctuated by two bouts of major abdominal surgery, one planned one not, I am now based at Swindon Borough Council, working for the local Area Child Protection Committee as business manager (23.5 hrs per week). Alongside this, I am training as a RELATE couples counsellor and hope to start working as a counsellor in the autumn of 2005.

Home

Our home has absorbed much time and creative energy in the last ten years. Dust, gaping floorboards, tangles of wires and more dust - that stage is thankfully behind us. We now have a huge, Mediterranean kitchen, dining and family room. This looks out through French windows across wooden decking to a white-walled barbecue area which continues the theme. Bold colours vie with quirky private jokes throughout the house. Our most recent effort is a Mexican inspired bathroom in blue and terracotta, with painted dream lizard above the window and an original mirror for the alcove above the bath inspired by traditional designs.

Faith

I have a strong belief in life's unfolding - if you can manage to retain a sense of direction yet simultaneously listen to your inner voice and respond to life's flow, it seems to me that you can tap into a magical synchronicity that can make it a joyous and constantly surprising adventure.

Sometimes, this involves a preparedness to launch yourself into the unknown - a 'leap of faith'. Sometimes there may be struggles in which it is hard to fathom a purpose. But I truly believe that, if you travel with open mind, heart and soul, it is possible to find 'the gift' inherent in whatever life brings to us. [Link to a small selection of my poems]

Gina Dennis (nee Jordan), 1 February 2005

Passage to the Age of Mastery: Definition of a Successful Life

To laugh often and much;
To win the respect of intelligent people
and the affection of children;
To earn the appreciation of honest critics;
To endure the betrayal of false friends;
To appreciate beauty, to find the best in others;
To leave the world a bit better,
Whether by a healthy child,
A garden path or redeemed social condition;
To know even one life has breathed easier
Because you have lived.

Ralph Waldo Emerson