Pip Wilson bhp

Saturday, December 04, 2010

Home after a week on the road.
Midlands UK
Out Monday
Home Friday
All midst snow and ice
+ uncertainty.

Standout
the warmth of welcome
everywhere I went.
Love it love it.

I led several workshops
but
I want to reflect on one
Young humans ..........

The big job is always
starting positively
developing a climate of trust
- so they trust me
trust the environment
trust the process
then
I will be able to facilitate
a journey
where they will take risks
for their own development
because growth does not reside
in a place called comfortable.

I delight when I can see humans change before my eyes.
Young guns often flash in their communication at first.
Masks of confidence and 'I have arrivedness'.

Then facial expressions change.
Their interior is stirred and it shows in their faces.
It shows in their body posture.
Contributions and question come at me sincerely.
Their interior starts to stirred.
A facing up to their own interior life
not outside-self posing.

Young humans on the edge
are so more willing
than professionals,
to quickly share authentically.
Life is raw.
Life is difficult.
Pretence is harder.
Masks not fitting so easily.

I use Maslow.
Asking them to place themselves physically
on the place where they are at.
They all walk
motion changes emotion
and stick a marker where they are at ........

Maslow Hierarchy of human needs reminder here - read it from the bottom::

5 Wholeness
4 Self esteem/achievement.
3 Belonging
2 Security
1 Survival

Facial expression proceeds and discloses
before words are spoken -
'I am at SURVIVAL'

I ask
emotionally?
spiritually?
relationally? ++

Answers::
No money
Just the every day grind.
Just the every day striving for food
NOT enough money for getting by
nothing to spend on essentials
a bus journey
soap/toothpaste/food .............

I makes me want to weep.
Because they are isolated in it.
Unlike the extreme poverty I saw in Capetown townships,
where so often they survive as a family,
these young humans are alone.
'Family' - long time gone ...........

A few staff are around in the hostel.
stretched support workers
offering all
needing support themselves.

The needs of the young adults
I consider extreme
their hardness just a cover.

By 'owning' their reality before each other
it is comforting.
'I am not alone'.

Softness -
or a softer climate now exists in the room.
I feel it now as I reflect.
My imperfect contributions help.
Their mutual support will last longer.

The next step after SURVIVAL
is SECURITY.
How can that be achieved?

My awareness is lacking.
There was hungry humans in the room.
When we have ourselves enough
we do not clock
others who haven't
enough .................

So many of us don't know
what it is like to go hungry ...........

...... and then there is other hungers .....
relationally
emotionally
socially
spiritually
and .......... how do I say family?

Belonging seems so far away when we are stuck
with survival .....................