This was a 6 foot high hand made from wood and designed by Ian Long and was a a regular at Greenbelt in the Rolling Magazine - and it is lost - I don't know what happened to it.The message remains tho .............
*
All we ever need to know -
we learned in the Nursery::
"Be aware of wonder.
Remember the little seed in the plastic cup;
the roots go down and the shoots go up,
nobody really knows how or why,
but we are all like this”
Robert Fulghum, from
'All I really need to know I learned in Kindergarten'.
I am a group worker.
I believe that a small group
can be a most wondrous method of learning,
growing, nurturing and becoming.
A group is a group of learners and teachers
because we all learn from each other
when there is a climate of trust.
"There are learners and knowers.
In times of change the learners will inherit the earth
while the knowers,
will find themselves beautifully equipped
to deal with a world that no longer exists."
This is about group work.
It is about experiencing the promise
of wholeness
in a small place.
It is about facilitating experiences
which humans can choose to take
and transpose the principles into their daily lives - forever.
I will walk you through a group work process.
Please take it as a helper.
Please transpose all your own learning,
experience,
cultural awareness,
passion and contextual stuff
into these ideas - or some of them.
The following is not a reading exercise -
it only comes alive when used in a dynamic interactive context -
like your potential or actual group with a great leader like you.
Plan a warm welcoming climate.
Music, seating, food, drink,
use of names and love oozing out of your frame -
because you love them right?
Start the group session going with some good fun questions.
The objective is to get everyone to talk early on.
Everyone to feel at ease at making a contribution.
Watch that everyone has a chance to contribute -
bring them in if they are a little quiet.
Question ideas::
i If life was a Supermarket - what shelf would you be on?
ii If life was iTunes - what genre would you be?
If your group is more than six humans -
divide into smaller groups and get feedback from every person.
Fun, creativity, laughter and deep reflection can come out of these.
Mix the groups again so that sharing is spread around the group.
All these get the group buzzing and a climate of trust has been developed.
Do another sharing exercise if you feel it right.
Feel free to use a Blob Tree Tools available for instant download.
Using them regularly can help a deeper level of self disclosure.
Last phase.
Distribute the 'Blob Feelings', - you can download it from
www.BlobTree.com , or project a large one on a screen.
(Remember that the Blob Tools are neither male nor female,
black or white, young or old and they are open,
and stimulate creative thinking and sharing.)
Don't crush any interpretation which is different than yours.
Encourage by asking why - why?
Some suggested questions - use them one at a time -
aim to get everyone sharing - groups of three are best.
i Which of the Blobs is most happy?
ii Which of the Blobs is in the worst situation? (always ask why?)
iii Choose one which reminds you of a situation you have been in your past?
iv Which one do you think is (choose the name of a person who is currently in the news for some great positive act or terrible injustice)?
v Which one describes your own personal feelings?
vi Which one do you desire to be in the future?
You can see that there is an easy start
which deepens as the questions continue.
All are important as humans around you will say something deep
which they have never spoken before.
Never even thought of before.
This is learning.
This is 'becoming’.
"We become fully conscious only
of what are able to express to someone else.
We may already have had a certain inner intuition about it,
but it must remain vague
so long as it is unformulated"
Paul Tournier from 'The Meaning of Persons’.
*
*
