Monday, February 08, 2010


We had a late night Skype with Joy in Miami.
She is out there for nearly 2 weeks.
Miss her.

We both had a good catch up with
Young Mother Sheila and miss her mad.
Also the little Constance -
still doing well.

We had a busy week-end off.
Not much time for the clicking
and the attack on the eMailLogJam.

Did catch the first Rugby League game of the season
for the Saints my beautiful team.
The fog was so bad it was more like radio than TV.
We lost. Terrible. We don't do that sort of thing
but - a better team won and we need to get our act together.

Did take a walk.
Both of us set out in the cold sunshine
and returned through the fog
covered in frosty wet glitter.

I really am not fit.
All the limbs are working ok
but the puffing starts if I walk up a hill.
Inside needs conditioning.
At least around our new Wilson Mansions
we have decent places to walk hey hey.
In London it was step/cough step/cough.
When the weather breaks I will be on my bike too!!

Tomorrow I will return to
kicking the darkness until it bleeds daylight.
Working at
comforting the disturbed
and
disturbing the comfortable.

I have to do my invoices, emails,
design new programmes
and especially the methods to use
to communicate to aid some simple
developmental steps.

I have been working at a Special School.
Special beautiful humans,
Staff and young humans -
beautiful.

I am stimulated, as after every gig,
to evaluate every item, interaction,
communication - every breath so I can
learn learn learn become ........

When Joan and me got married
we moved into a little house
and moved out one year to the day.
We sold up and started working in a
School for young offenders.

The challenges then,
are just like this last week.
The needs - just the same.
Emotional deprivation.

I use Tools and stuff out of my
Games Books.
Blobs out of the ever increasing
mixture of facilitating ideas -
and I get involvement and
young humans
doing.

When it comes to talking about feelings,
touching on any sense of their
emotional interior activity -
the shutters come down.

They will walk up to a Blob Tree,
on a big screen, and place a sticker
where they are -
how they are feeling but,
then won't talk about it.

Emotional literacy is about being able
to express feelings with words.
Not just 'happy' or 'sad'.
Every feeling comes under those headings.

The Blob Teenage cards get them talking.
Talking about how the Blobs are feeling.
The Blob Jigsaw gets them active
but struggle to respond to questions.

The best methods I have discovered
is to show slices out of a movie.
This engages them, moves them,
stirs their feelings and then they spill.
All depending how free/insecure they are.
All depending how chained they are
by their own peers.

If I can get them to write something
about themselves - wondrous
self revelation spills.

Out of older groups I get these::
"Today I told someone I was bullied at school."
"I don't want to be in a comfort zone -
I want to make a difference."

Sometimes, if the climate of trust is good,
usually when I am with a group for 24 hours,
there are stories of abuse, beatings, rejection,
alcoholic Parents - self harm and more.

How do I get through with the 'hard to reach'?
That's what I need to spend time on this week.
AND prepping for Iceland trip and
the following week-end.

If we don't let these things out,
these last words is for you,
they don't reside in your gut dead,
they are buried alive and will come back
to haunt you.
In body
In mind
In spirit
In dysfunctional relationships
because the person who is relating to you
is only building a relationship
with your shell -
not the real beautiful thing.
You are beautiful -
even more without the MASKS.