.... the doors slide open and I step onto the platform and walk 15 feet or so ........ I am heading for the edge of the opposite platform and a little metal box which is situated at the other side of the electrified lines of the London tube network.
I know that the train will stop here and, more importantly, the sliding doors of the next tube train.
The tube rolls in and the sliding doors in front of me open to spew out a ball of human heat.
It is followed, in a tenth of a second, by the human generators.
I pause enough to let them past and then step into the oven.
I have my backpack on.
I know I will be standing until I roll west past Oxford Street station.
Then I sit and pull out the Guardian newspaper to catch the news and analysis.
I am commuting and I am in a groove.
I lived on the job for 29 years, residential social work you could call it.
I am commuting, reading and preparing my day in detail.
I am preparing all the time for forthcoming gigs.
Some I never click about - others I do my reflections on line with Pipturesque.
Why do some humans wear sunglasses on the tube?
Is it another protective layer?
Another face?
I am on the way to a gig and all my focus is on that.
I love the challenge but it will drain my soul.
"I hate to say it but your session was good"
Why would someone hate to say it?
I need affirmation like all of us.
Bring it on!
BUT
I like the positive and the negative - when it comes to feedback.
"The unreflected life is not worth living"
Socrates
I found that when I got to grips with reflection
and getting in touch with my feelings,
or started to,
I began to grow as a human person.
I often say I became an adult at the age (about) forty years old.
That was part of my journey inward.
The opening and the owning of those vivid things which seem to influence life so powerfully ...... negative or positive.
My work with groups is a challenge.
Not only do I aim to communicate but I aim to create an environment and opportunity for everyone there to communicate.
Yes listening!
Yes verbally and non-verbally expressing themselves.
One big issue is something I have good conversations about with humans like you.
The issue of our own sensitivity .............. to ourselves.
If we are not aware of our own feelings, in touch with them,
it seems to me we are in a struggle to understand other humans.
So many people I know do not know how they are feeling, being able to put a word to a feeling.
I am happy.
I am frustrated.
I am angry.
I am low.
I am bitter.
I am at peace.
I am ....................... you fill in the space about your feelings now.
.
