On the 20th anniversary of Zofia becoming a PRH Educator, she would like to share a reflection she wrote back in 1998. Congratulations Zofia on 20 wonderful years!

I Have Arrived! At the Beginning…

By Zofia Di Stefano 1998

In early November, a large cardboard envelope arrived at my home. It was from France. The letter inside (written in French) announced that I was being welcomed into the PRH Foundation. I was now a PRH educator!!! At the time I felt quite ordinary – no excitations, no squeals of glee. It felt like just another ordinary step.

I’ve had some time to reflect on this event since then. I feel that I am at the beginning of some new adventure. I have no idea what this will be in practical terms. I feel I am standing at the tip of a diving board poised ready to jump.

I have never been a PRH educator before (even though I have run my first ‘Who Am I?’ – under supervision). I don’t know how this role will fit me? As I write this I realise that it is not a role I put on, it is more like something I grow into – something that is deep inside me – something that is born in me – something that is filling up who I am. As yet its look and shape and personality is still a mystery to me. Despite all this “unknown” in me, I feel strangely happy, expectant and peaceful.

Since I don’t know what being a PRH educator means for me, I cannot write any more about this. I can though, reflect on how I got here.

I met PRH in July 1990. I saw a flyer advertising the workshop ‘Who Am I?’ and something happened to me. I had to do it. I did not know anything about the workshop. I didn’t know anything about Jim Noonan (the facilitator). As a matter of act I did not meet him until walked into the workshop on the first day. Something happened during that workshop, something that made no sense to me at the time. When Jim said that he feels one of us may join him one day running these workshops, I heard an inner voice loud and clear shouting inside me “It will be ME!” This utterly surprised me and I dismissed it immediately.

I moved into doing other workshops slowly at first. All the time I felt something getting stronger in me – a strong attraction to all that PRH stood for, that is what I had experienced of it.

As I got deeper and deeper into the mystery of it all, whilst working at my own growth and healing, I felt an “at home” feeling. “This all feels so good and so right for me”, I would say to myself.

But I don’t think I would have got very far if it wasn’t for the PRH educators who saw in me what I didn’t dare to hope was in me.

Jim Noonan gently guided me through the FPM program reflecting back to me the growth he witnessed in me. Margaret Ignatius believed in my innate creativity and goodness. Bernadette Neville suggested that I go to Thailand for the PRH intensive program and showed a great faith in me. Bev Noonan took me aside a number of times helping me to verify the movements towards PRH in me. Margaret Bubb lovingly walked beside me in my training. The gatherings of all the Australian educators awakened in me aspects of myself that were unknown to me. This was done through the deep and powerful sharings of these women.

André Rochais puts into number one position "life-giving relationships" in our movement towards growth. I echo that over and over again in my own experience.

So here I am. I have arrived…at the beginning.