Wednesday, March 31, 2004

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…… the room is set in a comfortable but informal way. When the time is getting near I am in there with the music playing a good groove. In ambles a few humans.
YESS IT IS GROUP WORK STARTING ………….. and I am there as the punter facilitator.

I always feel apprehensive before a group. Adrenalin has to pump in a relaxed style for me to function well and be a positive tool in the operation. I ask the names of any new people so they are equal in terms of greeting and personal involvement.
Like leading games and some really silly kind of fun – I always plan every detail and every option and hopefully every scenario. It amazes me sometimes to see people playing games and it all being sloppy and no fun for the watching crowd ALL because the person leading the game is too interested in self enjoyment.
So here I am with feelings in abundance and prepared in detail ……… but informal and not reading a prepared script!

So in comes the humans and the group starts with some food and an activity I will tell you about in my enews-letter which you will get if you have done the right clicking on my web-site (where it says subscribe to newsletter).
Usually there is a handout which is created and conducted with non-readers in mind – always.
The subject is unknown to me at that point. Three options are often prepared and the one used is the one I judge best for the assembled group. Certain activities could not be used for a large group or a small noisy group …….. high on chemicals or drink for instance.
Always there is a risk taken to create an experience not just a heady discussion. I am after levels of communication you will know about if you read often. I am after development NOT only fun and views.
This risk stretches me – too.
This risk troubles me.
This risk hurts when I fail to do what I aimed for.
This risk hurts sometimes.
This risk is sometimes failure.
This risk fantastic at it’s best and better than that so often.
I never fail to be impressed at how humans can respond to challenge.

I am planning to post some of the exercises and tools I use on www.pipwilson.com so you can print and use if you wish.

I will leave you to spend some time with ……….. it is important that you are the person you want to spend the rest of your life with …….

livinginwondrousdays
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Tuesday, March 30, 2004

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In my journey to be an honest clicker on this blog spot, I also share stuff with you that I am sensitive about. That is because, sometimes, the text is affirmative towards me - like this.
If you do not like - please forgive.

"A few years ago I was really ill with RSI and faced the prospect of giving up my work but with a good physio and determination I came through it, held on to my job and became a YMCA Gym Instructor. While I am not presently able to devote time to the latter activity it enabled me to help so many people. My work in that role is not over, merely on hold. I will return to it, hopefully working with special needs clients when my life enables me to acquire the additional skills required.
I am pleased that you have returned to some of your passions and the very rewarding work you have devoted your life to. Our youth are our future and I cannot subscribe to the scrap heap mentality. Everyone can be brought back from the abyss (as I was with RSI) and go on to achieve their potential within society. The human spirit can beat all the odds but sometimes it takes someone as special as you to equip a person with the tools they need. Like you my purpose in life is to enable others to be the best they can be. In order for me to do this I need to be the best that I can be too."
Keith P .......... with permission.

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I have just composed this for my web-site new book page on demand.
Charlie my webmaster pulls the strings and the creativity in all things WWW.
So here it is - unedited;



" I have contact almost weekly from someone who wants a game idea or the world famous 'Blobs' .......... quite smug they are, won't come off their tree easily!
But, just like real life, there is the smug ones and the suicidal - the climbing up ones and the hanging on ones.

There are four books on the published list. Three of them are games and exercises. All the tools in the books are aimed at facilitating wholistic development. The wild and wacky fun ones are very much like that, to help in development - as are the deep and serious. The ones that create an 'experience' are not to mess with. They can unzip the soul and all that needs a safe environment and a climate of trust in a team or group.

Only one of the books is available from me;
'The very stinking rolling magazine book'.
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I call it the 'rolling magazine book'.
There are 100 games or more.

The NEW book I am attempting to create at the moment is a new;
"Games Without Frontiers" Bumper Edition ........
with my whole back catalogue and many new blob pictures, exercises and games.

The next 'Gutter Feelings' will certainly have lots of new material which some of it is shared in my daily blog on - www.pipwilson.com
This book covers the first forty years of my life and the x rated items have yet to be revealed!
It was first produced in the days before a computer came within my reach, remember liquid paper? It has since been typed by my friend Adolfus so I my consider releasing it in some way.

I am planning to post some 'tools' on my website so watch out for a Pearl of Wilson or two!!

bhp
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Saturday, March 27, 2004

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..rock and rolling in France and it is me again from the desk of pipwilsondorcom which is a table in a wi-fi cafe .............

strange thing I did last night ................... stayed up till 2 again and for the first time ever I watched a dvd on my laptop with earplugs as Joan slept ........... it was a Clint Eastwood movie I have never seen before and it was gripping ......

Today it is trawling the town and a visit to the massive and grand Cathedral
........ feel good and fat ...... that not so good, that, the latter bit ....... the fat bit

will lose weight next week ....... now it is eat and be merry in France

see you later

parlypoodotcom

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1 ...... first time I have blogged in the back of a car ......... offline methinks ..... I am sure ...... I am offline but it is so early in the morning my mind is dull and I am not thinking proper.

Up at 6 and only to bed at gone two. I can never go to be early when I am buzzing with humans late night.

Feelings ....... give over ....... not awake yet ....... will click again when in France. zzzzzzzzz

2 In Troyes now, we stopped in Reims - such a fab city and had a demi - bottle of champagne, me and Joan, with a spot of lunch. We sat outside in a bit of a chill but the sun and the champagne hmmmmmm.

Went in my favourite ink shop in Reims. All sorts of colours and pens to die for ...... love pens .... inky ones. Got some sea blue for the next stage of bringing colour into my life.

Out tonight for a nice meal with friends and driver and tour guide ...... pick yer friends and you get to sleep in the back of the car after a busy week/s and a past 2am bedtime.

Zero 7 on the mactop as I click.'as it falls' is the album.
chill to this.
Now I will dance around in my underpants ........ not looking in the mirror as my friend Homer does!

3 life is going on and have found a wi-fi cafe in Troys
so posting the story so far.

bon sewer
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Friday, March 26, 2004

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Dave Batstone is and always will be .........
a Greenbelt human ..........
a person who has spoken powerfully there and I have interviewed so powerfully there .........
and spoken at length with him in his home town of San Fran .............
here is a powerful quote from him from the website he drives ....... "Sojourners" ......
google will find it if you want it ............

I love this ................
".................. I took part in a Bible study in the refugee camp. I met Ana, a widow whose husband had been killed by the military because of his work as a community organizer within their local Catholic parish. She had come to the camp for the sake of her children. During the Bible study, Ana spoke a different kind of "theology of creation":

"I, as a mother, feel the weight of this war. In our country, the law of God is being violated.... A small amount of people are living the way that everyone should. There needs to be a change so that we can all live the way that God desires. Although we are treated like animals and receive no respect from those who have power in our country, we know that we are human beings because God loves us.
Isn't that what it means to be made in God's image?"

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"The absolute desire of 'having more' encourages the selfishness that destroys communal bonds among the children of God. It does so because the idolatry of riches prevents the majority from sharing the goods that the Creator has made for all, and in the all-possessing minority it produces an exaggerated pleasure in these goods."

- Archbishop Oscar Romero, "The Church's Mission Amid the National Crisis," August 6, 1979. Twenty-four years ago today, Monsenor Romero was assassinated as he celebrated Mass in San Salvador.
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I must say that following your excellent course "The Road Less Travelled" ...........

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......... this is just in and it is too good not to share with you ...... so I post with permission ....
==========================================

Pip, just a short note to say 'Hi' and enquire how you are getting on? I am fine and really quite busy. I thought I would fill you in on some of my activities and you can update me on yours.

I must say that following your excellent course "The Road Less Travelled" I have started a distance learning course in Interpersonal Skills with the University of Wales Lampeter as well as undertaking a short course in Basic Counselling Skills for Non Counsellors via Relate and Havering College. I was so impressed with the counselling course I have put my name down for a further Introduction to Counselling course at Quarles Campus which will lead, should I chose, to a Certificate In Counselling course and ultimately to a Diploma Course. Upon successful completion of the Diploma I may be able to offer my services to Romford YMCA. The courses are in Person Centred Counselling following the Rogers model. I am really looking forward to starting in May.

I have spent all week in Health and Safety training at the T & G at Dagenham as a support for my role as Union Health and Safety Rep. Again I have enjoyed the learning experience immensely and hope to put into practice all I have learned. In addition the T & G also have a professional training programme which I have submitted assignments for. Feedback so far is very positive.

I was recently approached to apply for a position of Parent Governor of my children's school and elected to that post a few weeks ago. Following training I will be able to take up that position in earnest.

For the last four years I have been a shareholder of South Midlands and Greater London Housing Society which i joined as I wanted to become a board member. I have this evening been elected to the board at the third attempt and will shortly attend my inaugural meeting where upon I will need to decide which subcommittee I will join. With fourteen years experience in the housing sector I feel confident I can make a contribution.

All in all I feel that my recent achievements began with my association with Romford YMCA and your course which implanted in me an interest in personal development and the belief that despite poor academic achievement in the past I am capable of gaining professional qualifications and recognition.

As I move from my thirties towards my forties I become more convinced that I am able to contribute to society while achieving real personal growth. I thank you for helping me take those first tenative steps along my individual path. As we discussed it's not the start or the end but the journey which is most important.

Love to you and your wife.

Regards


Keith
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......... we did drugs ......... the group ...... we did drugs.
I announced during the day that the discussion would be about drugs ..... and about twenty five came and you can't have a small group discussion without a small group. The experts say that a group does not conduct a process unless it is between 6 and 8 ............ well ..... I know Jesus had twelve ....... but he was Jesus!

It was more like trying to chair a Union meeting about underpay!
I decided to handle it by asking as many as possible to say about their first drug taken, their age and - the big question - why? (Only two in the room had not taken illegal drugs and one was me! ....... so I didn't go there!)
As usual, opinions started to flow and I struggled at first to get people to talk about self.
Opinions without feelings is going no-where.
There was some powerful self revelation amongst the noise and shouting and loud loud talking at the same time.
Crack had been used in abundance and a range of the hard core stuff. Outstanding was the peer pressure and people around them, this the main factor in starting.
All had started with a spliff.
"I was empty inside and yearned to be be filled" was said by a person who had spent years sleeping on the street from early teenage years - now clear eyed, off the chemicals and working!!

I cannot remember, never mind click the keys about all this, because it came fast and definitely furious.

At the end, the majority said that the stuff had done harm to them.
Most believed that it is possible to step away from it.
Most felt that they were despised for what they had done.
A small number were proud because they only smoked a spliff.

REFLECTION; At the end there were a few still human frames around as others dispersed. There was a disturbance deep in their souls, communicated to me, that what THEY had said - had soaked deep. Their values came to the surface. Without anyone telling them, a lecture - or drug education, they had impacted themselves by level five-ing to a group - a powerful - so - powerful - experience. They were reflecting on themselves. The words, the experience of it all. It was experiential - a word that always appears in my prep notes under the heading of OBJECTIVES.

I believe ................................................ I just believe ...............

lovetoloveyoubabybhp


"Community is a safe place precisely because no one is attempting to heal or convert you, to fix you, to change you. Instead, the members accept you as you are. You are free to be you. And being so free, you are free to discard defences, masks, disguises: free to seek your own psychological and spiritual health."
M. Scott Peck
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Wednesday, March 24, 2004

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Heart Trouble
They say heart trouble is caused by eating fatty foods, and living an unhealthy lifestyle. This may well be true, but I’ve got a sneaky suspicion that the real cause of heart attacks is people's inability to go past their fear, and open their hearts and love humanity. Heart trouble is a long-term emotional condition, caused by being too tight, lacking warmth, and not loving others. What's hereditary is not a faulty heart, but the lack of love. If you can't join humanity and embrace it with all its faults, you can't join God. If you can't join God, your body throws in the towel.

Stuart Wilde.
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...........and sometimes I feel a feeling - of failure.
Sometimes success.
Funny how I am suddenly startled by the feelings my brain is signalling to me as (the brain) picks up the pulsing waves from the implanted monitoring system - the feelings.

'He who never hurt ridicules the scars of others'
William Shakespeare

Sometimes I am not aware of feelings.
I just get on.
Most of the time I have little triggers which guide my sensitivity to others, my verbal, my touching, my non-verbal language.

My feelings are raw sometimes.
Particularly when I am with humans who are
-pleading attention
-oozing obnoxious behaviour
-hurting and saying it or showing it
-loud .......... and the reason isn't fun
-during group work
............... and more.
These times I am triggered by an auto pilot it seems. The feelings and my communication system seems to be synchronised. I am feeling but rolling.
Afterwards, when slowing down, I am aware of a deep sense of failure.
Other times - glow of good feelings.

I don't like that failure feeling.
Yet it is there and I own it and dig deep to understand it. I know this isn't the end of the world. I know it is because things have not gone well and I could have managed better or it was impossible to manage better.

At this moment I am left with feelings from an item of group work ...... and the summary feeling is good. I feel it was tough but overall good. I feel for a few of the humans who I know felt uncomfortable. Shouted down, couldn't get a word in, had deep hurts triggered there and then. The feelings with them is there but the overall kick in the 'feelings base camp' - is good.

The main
The great
The meaningful
The pleasure
......................... is when I can tell that a beautiful human has stepped onwards and forwards in their own understanding or learning.
Maybe even a new way of thinking feeling and believing.

I have put my finger on it, with all the clicking of keys I have just done - my finger is on the understanding of my feelings and why I feel good that -
I have met my own purposes - my mission.

"seek the shalom of the city
where I have sent you
because in it's shalom,
you will find your own shalom"
God
Bible Book
some where in Jeremiah
methinks.
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One"

Is it getting better
Or do you feel the same
Will it make it easier on you
Now you got someone to blame
You say one love, one life
When it's one need in the night
It's one love
We get to share it
It leaves you baby
If you don't care for it

Did I disappoint you
Or leave a bad taste in your mouth
You act like you never had love
And you want me to go without
Well it's too late tonight
To drag the past out into the light
We're one but we're not the same
We get to carry each other, carry each other
One

Have you come here for forgiveness
Have you come to raise the dead
Have you come here to play Jesus
To the lepers in your head
Did I ask too much
More than a lot
You gave me nothing
Now it's all I got
We're one but we're not the same
We hurt each other, then we do it again

You say love is a temple
Love a higher law
Love is a temple
Love the higher law
You ask me to enter but then you make me crawl
And I can't be holding on to what you got
When all you got is hurt
One love, one blood, one life
You got to do what you should
One life with each other
Sisters, brothers
One life but we're not the same
We get to carry each other, carry each other
One
One

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............. U2 songs ...... next album?

POSSIBLE SONGS:

"Sky Hawk" (rumored to be part of the soundtrack to Spiderman 2); "Love and Peace or Else"; "Jahweh" -- all reported by U2log.com, January, 2004
"Native Son" (there are reports that this used to be "Full Metal Jacket")
"American Prayer" -- sung by Bono during DATA's "Heart of America Tour"
"Full Metal Jacket" -- mentioned by Bono in an online chat with BBC host Jo Whiley
"Lead Me In The Way I Should Go" -- mentioned in this February, 2003, interview with Bono in Grammy Magazine
"All Because Of You", "Origin/Original Of the Species" -- rumored to be current song titles in report to @U2 in late July, 2002, and mentioned in Q magazine article, November, 2002; Bono also told a fan in June, 2003, that "All Because of You" is finished and will be on the new album
"One Step Closer to Knowing", "You Can't Give Away Your Heart", "A Man's A Man" - all mentioned in SPIN magazine
"Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own" -- song Bono sang at his father's funeral , and mentioned in Q magazine article, November, 2002
"Tough" - Bono has mentioned this recently as a song he wrote about his father
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come on come come on ............................
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Tuesday, March 23, 2004

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Illusions are art, for the feeling person, and it is by art that we live.
Elizabeth Bowen

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N*E*R*D
First saw them at a concert, at their first gig played in the UK.
I had all their stuff both as NERD and in their capacity as producers, known as (The Neptunes).
On stage the support band was all rock - strange for a HIP_HOP band concert I thought.
Then when NERD came on stage, they had the same band as their band,
is their band.
Fantastic stuff .......
reminds me of Run DMC days hmmm.

Yesterday the new album 'fly or die' hit the mat and now my ipod.
I push the ear plugs deep to my soul.
It is really good. The fused music, rock and hiphop, is excellent with with the bold lyrics that could grace any pop album ............. really pop stuf that robbie or kylie or britney could sing.
hmmm ..................
it is early days in terms of multi play and discovering the c.d. hidden tracks BUT ........ there are some fab tracks which will make my soul sing .....................
warning you children
explicit lyrics
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..... feel I have not communicated much of late.
I still have the principle that I blog to stretch, to stretch the openness that all the living human can be ....... why not when life is here inside as well as outside.

My friends sent me a postcard today showing the inside view of an ex-ray machine which says

BEI UNS STECKT MEHR DRIN, ALS SIE GLAUBEN

and because I know not the language the translated it to;
'there is more inside than you think/believe'.

Ulli and Volker and friends who I only see every three years or so but, because we communicate at beautiful lovingly passionately Level five, we connect in an instant as if we have never been apart.
I just love the levelfiverelationshipsofworth
....... seems the deeper ones always connect our spiritual selves too

stay beautiful ..... off to train, and train there and travel and enter the London underground - tube nervy terrorist target zone that all of us in London talk about or - at least feel about ...........

bhp
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Sunday, March 21, 2004

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..... this is ....... er .......... just paste it in your browser .....


http://www.apple.com/trailers/mgm/saved/medium.html



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Bangor ymca have posted a reflection on the week-end I led last week end ....
.....am I really that ugly?

http://www.bangorymca.org.uk/news.asp


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....... this is something i wrote some time ago but it is so real now and want to share it .........

Sledgehammer 2
The Sledgehammer weighed 10 kilos and we were planning to use it on the door of a young persons room in our 150 bed YMCA Hostel.
John had barricaded his room and it had all gone quiet for some time. We were worried because of his threatened suicide. “John we are worried about you – just make a noise – turn on the radio – anything to tell us you are O.K.”. We left it for a short while.

John doesn’t communicate. He can speak but life has damaged him in such a way that he does not relate. It has taken six months of saying “Hello John” and raising my thumbs with a smile to get him to produce a slight waving of his thumb. At nineteen he walks slowly around as if in desperate fear.

Time was up – “John we have to break down the door so do not be afraid of the noise,” said Dave our youngest Professional Secretary who works closely and affirming with him. The door was smashed out of its frame – painful noise permeating all eleven floors. It had to be knocked downwards, being held by a bed at the bottom. Eventually I lifted the splintered door out of the horrible gap with a range of fearful expectations in my heart. The room was in darkness – smashed up and John was standing in the farthest corner – crying – shaking with his sobs. “Don’t worry John, you are O.K. now” said Dave “it’s you we are concerned about”.

Dave sat on the floor, John sat on the end of his bed and the real work began, while I went for cups of tea and biscuits – John likes biscuits.
John is one of over 3,000 members and residents and an extreme example of someone in need. A number of others display behaviour, which is not submissive but aggressive and more painful to deal with. However difficult it is, we believe that: -
There are no difficult people
Only difficult behaviour

John is unfit in a different way than others of us – yet he needs ‘development’ not ‘control’. He is being worked with by Dave and others and a regular thumbs up smile from me.

“Dave sat on the floor and John sat on the bed”
I have never yet mentioned this to Dave, my colleague, - but I delight in the picture stamped in my mind. Dave sat below John, in the rubble of a smashed room, taking the position of vulnerability…………..I weep as I conclude – joy and sadness.


See from his head, his hands, his feet
Sorrow and love flow mingled down.
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STARFISH
As the old man walked along the beach at dawn, he noticed a young woman ahead of him picking up starfish and flinging them into the sea. Finally catching up with the young woman, he asked her why she was doing this. The answer was that the stranded starfish would die if left until the morning. “But the beach goes on for miles and there are millions of starfish”, countered the other. “How can your effort make any difference?” The young woman looked at the starfish in her hand and then threw it to safety in the waves. “It makes a difference to this one”, she said.
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This is Richard and his a sample of his ymca experience ................
"........ a whole new world opened up to me as to explore like a newborn child, I began another journey in my life. The YMCA is a place where a lot of action takes place. Where the heart and soul of many lives dwell and seek solitude. The place, the whole world looks upon. Where you will see lot of people who have seen life living among the people who have yet to discover what the true value and meaning of life is. I am glad that I am living and working with a bunch of beautiful people who never made me feel home sick.
Being a one year International volunteer from India. I just want to share my experience with everyone. It was really great to live with three wonderful people from Senegal, Ecuador & Ukraine respectively. Even though living together is a great Challenge with Gods Grace we are doing quite well till now.

Next question was how do you know him? I replied, “ He is my friend”. The child’s curiosity increased. I found amusement in his innocence. He then asked me “do you see him?” I gave a warm smile and told him James I have and before he asks me more I told him “ James I see Jesus everyday and I speak with him daily.” At this moment James sadly replied “Richard I have neither seen Jesus nor spoken to Him”. I held his hand and I said to him “ you be good boy and one day you will see Jesus. Of the one and half years of my life in England James was the first kid who spoke to me about Jesus. That moment was really sweet for me. I love my diddies children. They are little angels. And above all very precious. It is always nice to have someone say to you that I missed you very much. But it is much more touching when these lovely, precious little Angels come back from their holidays and tell you ”Richard, I missed you”. God bless them.

This moment I started feeling the strong cool eastern wind blowing towards the direction of my Soul.

On Christmas Eve, Ann, who comes for special need rehabilitation class came to me and gave me a big hug said My son, Thank you for coming into my life & being there for us throughout. The very same day I got a Christmas card from my parents from India with the wording Thank you for coming into our life for you are Gods gift to us. What a coincidence.
That day I went to Church for the mid night mass. Soon after I took the Bread and sipped the wine I felt a very cool sensation passing through my body, which made me shiver. God showered snow on my Soul. And above all the snow was the blessing of the wonderful people who are around me.
Not only that I saw three snow falls during this New Year. I had a fantastic experience of walking in the snow, making a snowman and also many snow fights that I experienced for the first time in my life. It was a fantastic sight watching the snow falling that gave a feeling of intense joy within my heart. A silent serenity coated my soul creating a beauty similar to the snow-covered landscape around me.
God Bless All.'
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STARFISH
As the old man walked along the beach at dawn, he noticed a young woman ahead of him picking up starfish and flinging them into the sea. Finally catching up with the young woman, he asked her why she was doing this. The answer was that the stranded starfish would die if left until the morning. “But the beach goes on for miles and there are millions of starfish”, countered the other. “How can your effort make any difference?” The young woman looked at the starfish in her hand and then threw it to safety in the waves. “It makes a difference to this one”, she said.
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Saturday, March 20, 2004

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"Our generation will be remembered for the Internet, for the war against terror, and for how we let an entire continent burst into flames while we stood around with watering cans -- or not,"
He compared the situation to watching Holocaust victims being put on trains while the rest of the world did nothing............
BONO in interview.
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.....listening to Pete Tong on mactop wi-fi as I click da keys here at the leaning towers of pipdotcom. Have already heard the show on the tape machine under my desk as I produced a paper on spirituality today.

It is week-end recovery time. The last three week-ends have had commitments so I have been a pumping with Mr Adrenaline. Now he escapes me and I am pleased to be slob like a little. A paper takes some stretch so tomorrow maybe a more chilled day ....... if I complete the paper.

Next week-end I will be in champagne land sipping hmmm. This next week is busy every day plus a Brick Lane curry meeting. Travel with the new N*E*R*D album which is due to hit the doormat on Monday hmmm

Beef-on-the-bone news ............... the Saints won again with half a team but the big cup game is next Sunday when we are returning from sipping. Why am I telling you all this ....... suppose coz it is me ...... all of me.

Thinking about this rugby union game. It is a bit like the church of England. It wont shift, move get a grip and join this year ..... even last year would be better than 1662 worship or rugby. These mauls and rucks, the ball disappears and life becomes boring for the spectator. Why don't they change the rules and get rid of the mess and lets see the ball moving and the legs pumping. So much to learn. We have always done it like this so we always will. That is why it took over 100 years to turn the game AFTER the Rugby League was formed, out of the RU because the miners and other working men couldn't afford to miss work through injury. Catch up.

Tong plays on and a cafe-creme and a glass of wine is going down well as Joan watches cricket while I stay wired.

Will catch you tomorrow ...... Joan is talking to me, there is rain in Trinidad.

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Friday, March 19, 2004

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I have mentioned Oslo's Bugge Wesseltoft a man intent on reviving jazz's spirit of adventure. His new album Film'Ing is out in April.
Wesseltoft's vintage sounds and high-tech toys will create an album of the stuff I love mixing of club culture with that Oslo feel and a dance groove that is spiritual in every note. I expect it to be burning hot on my ipod, bursting into flames as it journeys with me.
Cannot wait.
Good job N*E*R*D arrives on Monday.

donnasummer@pipwilson.com
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Thursday, March 18, 2004

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"He's the cooler-than-cool rocker, the legendary front man of U2, husband of 22 years, and father of four, who's singing his heart out to shine light on a crisis devastating a continent. By the time the sun sets this evening, AIDS will have claimed the lives of 6,500 more people in Africa. Before you finish this sentence, another mother, father or child will succumb to the virus. We've all heard the numbers, shaken our heads at the horror and moved on to whatever we had to do next. Bono, on the other hand, takes the AIDS epidemic personally."
Oprah
about Bono .......... see thr full interview on
www.atu2.com
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...... when a friend writes something and it is like God touching my soul with his finger tip ........ I want share it with you...................
======================
Sons and Daughters of Abraham: Three Faiths - One Blessing?

Soul troubled, moved, angry, lamenting, loving, feeling, trying to reach out, touch, feel, soothe, caress the weary and broken...

Have just come back from the city that according to the Chief of Police has moved from a place of 'if' to 'when' for an amazingly provocative conference. Run by the 'Friends of Al Aqsa' a friend and I were treated to a wealth of historic, spiritual insight and vision for the future regarding 'The Impact of Zionism on Jewish, Christian and Muslim Relations'.

There is a real danger when one assumes one knows a fair bit about a certain subject - when one feels one understands the situation pretty well - when one thinks one has the i's dotted and the t's crossed. Hmm, I find it worrying when I hear people make such assumptions. Here's my point, I thought I was reasonably well read - now I know that I know very little. My friend and I hooked up with Garth Hewitt whilst there as I'm putting together a similar conference next year - 'Sons and Daughters of Abraham: Three Faiths - One Blessing?' Surely we have to be about building bridges rather than burning them?

I found it so moving to see Jews and Muslims embracing each other as brothers and sisters, longing for peace and the chance once again to live side by side and learn from one another. I cried as a Palestinian Muslim, through his tears, felt that after 40 years of struggle somehow his work had finally been vindicated after hearing from the lips of Jews that the land should be shared and that spiritual history had been tampered with. Evangelicals speak of the presence of the holy spirit descending when anointed people speak. I have sensed this from time to time, but never like this man - who just happened to be a Palestinian Muslim, and an ex-terrorist! How little we understand about the character of our Maker!

I'm bloody fed up with a boxed-in God, with a people who have their heads so far up their spiritual backsides they can't see the whisper of God's spirit moving beautifully through our terror torn communities. The irritation is refreshed to go clear the land for a new culture. Not one of Zionism, but one filled with the fragrance of Gethsemene and Calvary. As Douglas Coupland suggests in 'Girlfriend in a Coma', "If you are not spending every waking moment of your life radically rethinking the nature of the world - if you're not plotting every moment boiling the carcass of the old order - then you're wasting your day."

It's time we started sifting our souls of the muck and mire of our spiritual ego's and think very hard what it means to take up the basin and towel in today's world! As the wonderful Desmond Tutu says, "God says to you, I have a dream. Please help me realise it. It is a dream of a world whose ugliness and squalor and poverty, whose war and hostility, greed and harsh competitiveness, alienation and disharmony are changed into their glorious counterparts."

I remain thankful to my Muslim and Jewish family...We're one but we're not the same...we've got to carry each other, carry each other, carry each other....one.
paul Chambers
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................almost daily I click this website
always a picture
always some reflective text
a wee mouthful

colour comes into my life

http://www.jengray.com/

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gilles Peterson is ringing in my ears as i catch up on some deep e-mails too good to answer quickly ......

I am relaxed.
Feel good.
More alive than early evening when I slept.
Usually need to turn the brain off on Wednesday evening.

been loving people today.
donnasummer@pipwilson.com it feels like

I love the people I work with, staff, and the people I work with, the other humans - and we all have needs.
WE all have needs.

I suppose ~I must be a bit of a professional when it come to group work with special needs humans.
There cannot be many who do it regularly.
I feel like an amateur
I always give 125%
have to
I am stretched
I have to give my whole self
my all of experience
All of my energy ......

when half the group is under the influence of something making them high
it makes it tough
I accept it
there is no use saying 'come only when balanced'
I would be missing ............... too

the depth I yearn for
aim for
does not happens sometimes

when I get a number of new humans
there is a tough time ahead
there is 'the loud'
the quiet
the emotional
the loud
the great pretenders

usually what turns the bend to depth
it is when one person shows their vulnerability
I do
I expose that I am feeling a failure
feeling I am not being valued
my feelings
not their behaviour

sometimes I challenge a human in a sensitive way
difficult
if there is a big loud large front
jack-the-lad
'I'm ok - you're not ok'

it takes time but when they start to respect me
or others are seen to respect me
there is less harshness
more observation
more quiet

I honestly don't know if you are getting me here. You see - I am visualising this. Hearing this as I click dem keys.

Just want to share and appreciate you pausing
a lingering pip

donnasummer
to you

Wednesday, March 17, 2004

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this is about my Rugby League hero:-
=================================
St Helens hooker Kieron Cunningham has emerged from a nightmare to be better than ever, says coach Ian Millward.

Cunningham endured a miserable time last year under a cloud of rumours and allegations about drug-taking.

But his reputation has been repaired, and Millward reckons he is now making up for any lost time.

"Kieron took one or two steps back last year, but this season he's taken four big steps forward," he said. "He has been awesome for us."

Millward added: "He's still the best hooker in this country and in the top one or two in the world.

"He's playing better than he ever has while I've been at the club, and I think you will see the best of Keiron Cunningham over the next two years."

Cunningham, still only 27, is being used in a much more utility role for his club this season, because of the presence of Micky Higham in the Saints starting XIII.

But Millward doesn't believe that will weaken his case to carry on hooking for Great Britain in this Autumn's tri-nations series.

"I still expect him to play for Great Britain at the end of the year at nine, but for us he may have to play one or two roles."
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.................I am thinking of two courses I have been asked to run and the thinking is going like this;-
=================================
Human Being and Human Becoming
- eyes wide open
- enlarging the capacity to love
- emerging the real
- living with PASSION

A workshop looking at ‘life management’ and development of our whole person
A workshop of journeying with a group to step forward from routine.
A workshop of gentle stretching our potential.
A workshop touching spiritual self and Christian principles.
A workshop developing the ‘ymca taker’ and the ‘ymca maker’
A workshop to ‘take away’ only what you chose.

Pip Wilson will lead a group which will be facilitating a journey into whole person development.
Methods will be group processes and experiential learning in a climate of trust.

www.PipWilson.com
pip@pipwilson.com
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"I didn't have a great relationship with my father for a long time. He died last year. I kind of made peace with him before he died, but I wished I had put that right earlier."

-- Bono, 2002

That is my experience ........ poor relationships with parents .........

"put it right earlier ........................"...... a good thought eh?

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A few people bothered me this week. Got a couple of putdowns. Usually they are statements which start with the word "you......".
It is a finger pointing word like 'should' and 'aught' .
I never use those two words on principle.
============================
you are very nice people
the tv ad says !!!!!!
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Also there are people who are warm and I want them to develop.
I yearn that they can be warm with others of differing natures and personalities.
To love the lovely is great.
To love the unlovely is a real challenge to all of us in our development. hmmmmm .....
I notice those I warm to, and others not as easy.
So principles kick in.
I am off.
The fingers cannot keep up with the mind, but I love - lurve - the music playing so close as I type to you.
Just glance at a finger tip of yours ......... so unique that print ......

-wish-you-wonder-

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Tuesday, March 16, 2004

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===========================
communicating is like playing catch ball
I throw the ball and you catch it
the you throw the ball and I catch it
and again I throw the ball ......

'I want to tell you about my feelings'
that is how communication began
just as we need to throw a ball
back and forth to have a game of catch
we need to tell each other our feelings
to communicate

if you are to close together or
you are too far away from each other
it is not easy to play catch
communicating is the same
if you are too far away from your loveror your friend or
your child or your parents
it's not easy to communicate

communicating doesn't begin
with both people speaking at the same time
one side or the other
must make a move
someone has to throw the ball first

but you may not want to throw
the ball first - you may want to wait
for someone to throw it it you first
because when you throw the ball
and no one tries to catch it
you are unhappy

there are times
when you are unexpectedly rejected

there are times when you throw the ball
wanting to play with another person
only to have the person throw it to someone else

to be continued
=================================
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===============
"facts are stupid things"
ronald regan
===============
Just listening to a frank zappa album and he displays that quote on the sleeve!

Hope you are ok?
How are you feeling?
put a word to it
use that word as a prayer
God knows the feeling
he is the creator of us humans and, it seems to me, he knows how we tick over
or rev at full pelt

me?
I feel slugish
Up too early
bed too late
will rev later

thinking, as a slug
I want to lead a group today
subject
families
(my imagination turns to the Simpsons!)
there are other models but that one family is high profile in my mind
===================================
Quote;
"Families are about love overcoming emotional torture"
Matt Groening
===================================

I have picked up of late
and recent years
'family' can be a lingering dread
even when parents have been dead for ten years
they can be dread
People who have attendeded my 'road less travelled' courses
many have been weighed down, stifled, feeling oppressed
by the very thought of ....................
'family'

I want to open up the issue and help us all work it out

I remember saying to my Mother when I was forty
'Mother - I am forty and I can decide how to keep my hair, and the style'
said in a warm smiley way because I had just become an adult (around about 40)

I will reflect here how I go on............ the road less travelled today too ........
==================================================
Quote;
"the family you come from isn't as important as the family you're going to have."
Ring Lardner
===================================================
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Over the week - end ....... I forgot to tell you that I was screaming and jumping up and down in my bed room on my own ........... for about 80 minutes ......... then I was relaxed and at peace because the best rugby league team ......... the SAINTS from St Helens .............. we beat Leeds and knocked them out of the cup. It was so tense. So fab. So beautiful of a team ....... the defence was unbelievable and so good to watch ......... now we have Hull in the next round and another step of fear and faith ............

Tomorrow ...... today really .......... I am on the three trains again and with people I love. I always carry some nerves because a week can be a long time in a persons life and I carry these people close in my soul ........ I want to do ........... I am not responsible FOR them ................. but I am responsible TO them and when I am with them, I offer all I have.
I have talked about this before. I really have deep feelings of love for them and words cannot express that ...... certainly I often cannot say that to them as it is not sensitive to do so (I have at certain times when is/has been right) ........ but I can tell you ................. much more in the chest to share but it is late and tomorrow I will need to be kicking ..........

===============================================
I am going to kick the darkness until it bleeds daylight
quote used by Bono but by Bruce Cockburn
================================================

Monday, March 15, 2004

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Hmmm I don't know how to start.
Two people on my heart and more. But two people popping up above the surface like an iceberg ........ and I don't want to be the Titanic.

1 Obnoxious behaviour. Language mostly. Coming right out of the soul.
-I believe that an obnoxious person is a hurting person.
-I believe that this human is valuable and precious.
The big issue, apart from all the other things you know about my beliefs, - is my behaviour (MY BEHAVIOUR) and response to this number one human before me.
I have emotions when I see the 'under the influence' eyes.
I have feelings when the aggression spits from the lips.
I am sensitive about my emerging negative reaction to the words which are at the opposite end of the spectrum to my own.
I made an un-requested verbal observation to the person about the behaviour. Not normal for me.
One affirmative.
One suggesting to the person that there is violence within. At the worst this could have been received as criticism. At the best as a gentle observation about violent words and negative attitudes.
If this person starts to respect me and feel/see/hear that there is love here available ........... I have a better chance to hear and be heard. Better chance for all humans around to work together for their own development.
A move is when an opinion is asked by this person - to me. That happened and that is a sign of emerging respect. There has been, for the first time, exchanges of positive words. There has been also a disclosure of confidential information about crime, violence and even revenge.
So you may get my approach towards this human. I want to build a mutual, non-hierarchical relationship. Age and role and status and chemical interference are not the issue. Only the development of both of us, because as I wrestle to understand and communicate, I will experience massive learning ....... of such is the Kingdom .......

I feel much better reflecting. I feel the person is including me in communications, in confidentiality. I see a move. A prayed for move. I await a coming closer and maybe, just maybe, there may be a a way that I can become responsible to (not responsible for) ............... this beautiful human.

2 When you have a background knowledge of a person. When you have sat close and felt the volcano within ready to erupt, I have feelings.
There has been a terrible childhood and not terrible parents BUT horrific behaviour from parents. When the person tells me they want to talk but also says that if they do ....... they will lose it. When that person then walks away across a four way road junction and not bothering or caring about the busy traffic ......... I have deep concern. When the message is that, after some smoked crack, the person is coming to get someone...... I have real cause for concern.

This is a bit heavy I am aware. But it is real. It is all related to what I want to do. It is part of not being at the centre and safe. It is part of being away from the centre - on the edge.

I cannot be clearer because of confidentiality.
I am glad I do what I do.
I am struggling but I accept that.
Sometimes I don't and I love that - struggle that is!

....................... there is beauty in becoming.
The most beautiful flower, for me, is the one which pops up through a crack in the concrete.

beautifulhumanperson.com
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My favorite club
'cargo'
what a night we have here .................



WED 17 ? CHAMBER MUSIC - CLASSICAL MUSIC STAYS OUT LATE


A new night where the freshest live chamber music performers get cosy with the sharp edge of DJ talent to create a unique & ear-opening nightclub experience. Get out the concert hall and get to the bar early.

Elysian Quartet
Probably the boldest, most exhilarating String quartet in the business, this audaciously talented foursome is fast winning admiration and respect across the musical spectrum. Formed back in 1999, Elysian Quartet comprises Emma Smith, Jenny May Logan, Vince Sipprell and Laura Moody: four highly skilled and distinctive musicians still intheir early twenties and uninhibited in their enthusiasm for all kinds of music.
With its energetic & fresh sound Elysian Quartet puts its own stamp on classical standards while chartering new territory for a classical ensemble.
\'Human beat-box? Killa Kela, singer/songwriter Polly Paulusma; saxophonist Barak Schmool (Timeline/F-ire Collective); composer Kuljit Bhamra and new British jazz giants Jade Fox have all collaborated with the quartet, while an ongoing exploration of music in different contexts has lead to performances of George Crumb\'s renowned electronic masterpiece Black Angels in Ronnie Scott?s jazz club and the works of Shostakovich in Soho bars.

Gabriel Prokofiev
Born in London to a Russian father & English mother. Gabriel Prokofiev studied music & composition @ both Birmingham & York Universities; & in 1998 he won a composers residency in Seattle at the Bourges International concours of Electroacoustic music. But for the last 5 years he has been producing dance & electro music under a variety of different guises. Last year he returned to his classical roots to compose his String Quartet No1 (for the Elysian Qrtt), however his dance music background is still evident in the quartet?s edgy, syncopated style which is sometimes classical (?reminiscent of the brusqueness and sparse textures of Stravinsky\'s String Quartet writing? P.G. Woolf, musicweb.uk.net), but also has hints of Garage & Modern Jazz. The link with dance music also means that the Quartet will actually be released on 12? vinyl, complete with remixes (from the likes of BoxSaga, Max DeWardner, & Ed Laliq). These remixes will receive their public premier on the night, & promotional 12?s & CDs will be available.
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anyone fancy going?
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http://mysite.freeserve.com/babybear/count_your_blessings.html

paste this
it is a guide to praying deeply during lent
or, if you do not pray, a dig to your soul.

bhp
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Below .... read 5 'PM' not 'am'

Not gone to bed yet and last night I only got to my room and started to prepare the two workshops for Sunday at 3.10am! .......... yes 'a.m.'

Need to put zig to bed and then myself. (he looks strange with his bald patch!)

Eager as I am to reflect on the w/e ........ I would be ages and now is not the time.

stay beautiful .........................
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Sunday, March 14, 2004

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5 am at Belfast airport having missed my stinking easyjet home. Now it is four hours waiting for the next stinking flight.
My fault.
Was enjoying the people too much and did not leave sufficient time to travel.

I have been offblog because of my w/e here ........ this will be posted as soon as I get within wi-fi or home.

I want to tell you about my fab time here but feel like I am ready to sleep. Instead of the cafe area I had planned to be on a plane now and asleep before take off. I can do that normally. As soon as the adrenaline stops I crash and sleep easy to refresh.

I will try ...............................
I have just plugged in my ear-jacks into my mactop and amp fiddler is drowning the boring tape at departure regarding what you need to do with your mobile phone. hmmm. That's better.
I have been leading a week-end for 13 beautiful humans from the North Down area. I led them on a journey of self discovery, peer discovery, self awareness, community awareness and the all to important further step of skill development. These skills are in levels of communication. Sensitivity and, not only accepting and valuing people in theory, but in practice. We practised together. The vital things of life like making love.
We played the games, used the 'blob tree' type tools and stepped beyond the normal communication style.
If you don't know what I mean ........ I led activities, exercises, games and experiential times together which were both enjoyable and stretch for the soul and mind and whole person.

It was hard going...... (if you are blog dipping for the first time and you are a member of that group - yes it was hard going and I will explain a bit here) .. ....sometimes. The group was a first time ever together group. Groups usually go through stages of
-forming
-storming
-norming
-performing
We had the job of going through the lot and there was a tightness of sharing and revealing in the first half of the event. One issue was a noticeable reluctance to engage in dialogue and opinions at the start.
It all turned out fantastic with real and new experiences for all. Flowers opened in the light. Shells eased open. Words and other language flowed as these special humans allowed their souls to be uncovered for a wee while.
It will be a week-end I will never forget.
It will be an experience which they will never forget.

I have had the joy of living in wonder with them.
We will never be together again and maybe most of them I will never even see again.
beingandbecoming@pipwilson.com
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Friday, March 12, 2004

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In Ireland all week-end ....... will catch you soon .......


donna summer to you

(Beyonce is just using the 'donna' lyrics in her new single - like it)

lovetoloveyoubaby@pipwilson.com
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Just home and seen the devastation in Spain.
What a terrible act.
I bleed with the Spanish nation.
I bleed for humanity.

I weep with pain at the very shock of people and families stabbed by bombs and lacerated by life long disfiguration.

I have no anger as yet.
It is empathy and wanting to love.

Lord have mercy
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Thursday, March 11, 2004

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Saw the man in tescos with this thing on his ear to answer his phone, nerdy, cheapy, silly, posey, geeky and all the other things

I have just bought a trendy, on the edge, state of the art, cutting edge blue tooth gadgit to have on my ear so I can answer mobile calls. So cool

It will not be worn in Tescos
It will only be visible in the car

bluetooth@pipwilson.coolgeezer

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Zig in the Vets again today
yesterday he developed a lump on his spine which turns out to be an absess
it was the same bite from last week
now he has a big space of flesh were the fur was and a big hole were they drained it
so we have antibiotics for another week and a £50 bill ..... another.

prrrrrrrrrrrrrrr@pipwilson.com

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And I know it aches and your heart it breaks
And you can only take so much
Walk on

Leave it behind
You've got to leave it behind
All that you fashion
All that you make
All that you build
All that you break
All that you measure
All that you feel
All this you can leave behind
All that you reason
It’s only time
All that you bear
No more than a feeling on my mind
All that you see
All that you wear
All that you sense
All that you scheme
All you dress up
All that you’ve seen
All you create
And all that you wreck
All that you hate

words fro U2 and I love the song
hmmmmmm@pipwilson.com
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Wednesday, March 10, 2004

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There are two things in life that I'm equally passionate about: the constant pursuit of the perfect cup of coffee and the music of U2. 

So starts an article on
www.atu2.com
always well worth a visit to read on ...................
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" to worship god means to serve him. there are two ways to do it.
one way is to do things for him that he needs to have done--run errands for him,
carry messages for him, fight on his side, feed his lambs, and so on.


the other way is to do things for him that you need to do--
sing songs for him, create beautiful things for him, give things up for him, tell
him what is on your mind and in your heart, in general rejoice in him and make
a fool of yourself for him the way lovers have always made fools of themselves
for the one they love...
unless there is an element of joy and foolishness in the proceedings,
the time would be better spent doing something useful."
frederick buechner
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====================
JOKE

what do you call a man whos playing pool with a pint of beer on his head?










Dunno!




Answer





Beertrixpotter

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I have decided that the new zero 7 album is late night stuff for me and that I stick to the dance music for the train journeying and my darling easyjet.
It is fab late night and multiple plays are doing it for me.

More music ......... the Outkast album, I have said before, really rings my bells. I have ordered the 'amp fiddler' album as I cannot resist any longer.
Coming soon:-
Bugge Wesseltoft is the man on the keys. A Norwegian Jazz man who lays down a dance groove. I expect great things.

N*E*R*D have a new one out soon and they are vivid imagination on legs.

'Rasmus' have a 'dead letters' album out. The had a number one single in Finland and Denmark when we were prancing around the stage in Prague back in August 2003. Now it seems they are coming to mainland Europe!!!
I have the album but the single will be in your face very soon.

Book of the moment:-
'deep stuff'
by
mike riddell
unusual and really gripping me ....... only on the train, I add.

==============================
"You use a glass mirror to see your face;
you use works of art to see your soul"
George Bernard Shaw
==============================

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Tuesday, March 09, 2004

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I am always reflecting and it helps me to think and forge direction ....... how about this for a list of objectives for life:-
Objectives
-To create a Buzz in individual and Communities about
wholistic development which includes opportunities and Christian development.
-To bring warmth to the cold and the cool
-Quench the thirsty
-Excite the soul
-Inspire all to take risks for their own development
-Encourage all to become a
Life taker and a life maker
-Stimulate feelings and thoughts about a creator God
who loves and wants for them.

.

Objectives
To create a Buzz in individual YMCA Communities about
wholistic development which includes opportunities and Christian development.
To bring warmth to the cold and the cool
-Quench the thirsty
-Excite the soul
-Inspire all to take risks for their own development
-Encourage all to become a
Life taker and a life maker
-Stimulate feelings and thoughts about a creator God
who loves and wants for them.

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N*E*R*D
You can catch some fab radio on the bbc listen again
go to radio one home page and click NERD ................ who I lurve

Originally Broadcast 17 Feb 2004
this is what the beeb says:-
"When Pharrell and Shae from N*E*R*D dropped into the Live Lounge to perform 'She Wants to Move' - they also treated us to two very exclusive Live performances of two singles from their new album. You can hear them for this week only:

'Break Out'
'Maybe'
'She Wants to Move'
ALSO you can Listen to the interview"
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This is fab stuff about Greenbelt if you want some depth ..... or .......... you may want to skip?
Last night there was an evening of Greenbelt Trustees with our valuable partners. This is a presentation given with a background of slides from the festival, Delivered by two fab GB humans - putting flesh and passion into the presentation about festival they love and have poured voluntary time into it/us/kingdom/Greenbelt for years hmmmmmm. It was great.

It is long - ish but great stuff.

================================================
Many thanks for joining us tonight. It’s good to get together more informally and share our involvement in Greenbelt. We think Greenbelt is a collective effort, involving the gifts and creativity and energy of many of you as much as us.

It’s a little difficult to know quite how to pitch a presentation on occasions like this – but it seemed a chance to talk the Festival up a little bit, given that in recent years it has been no secret that we have experienced some difficulties.

All the indications we can muster suggest that the Festival is now definitely headed in the right direction – and we thank you for your role in this and urge you to think if you can have a greater role in future, or if you can suggest to us ways in which we can broaden the appeal of Greenbelt and further secure its long term prospects.


The figures are beginning to speak for themselves

In 1999, our first at Cheltenham, just 4,000 people came to Greenbelt, our lowest attendance since the very first time we held the festival way back in 1974 on Prospect Farm. But what a prospect…

Last year, in 2003, we sold out at our licence capacity of 15,000 – and that was out highest attendance since the rain-soaked 1997 festival back in Deene. On present trends – albeit early ones – we could be looking at our fifth consecutive year of increased numbers this summer. Perhaps there really is something in the Cheltenham waters!

This year we’re aiming towards a 17,500 capacity – representing a quadrupling of our festival audience in just six years.

Added to this, is our financial recovery – from a position of being deeply in debt and our enlightening, near-death experience of the mid to late 1990s. At the end of last year, Greenbelt had a debt of £150,000, but that has been reduced from just over £300,000 in 2000. Our intention is to clear this debt by 2005.

Keeping you in touch

The resurgence of the Festival comes at a time when, according to an article in Third Sector magazine recently, lots of Christian organisations are in financial crisis, haemorrhaging supporters (along with their giving and legacies) and beginning to feel like a little Dutch boy trying to plug the flow with his finger.

(The Church of England, for instance, says it lost 100,000 worshippers between 2000 and 2002.)

CMS’s Mission movement director Canon Chris Neal has commented:

"The real issue is the Church's inability to make meaningful connections with contemporary culture. This means that the Church is left with an ageing and declining membership, struggling to maintain historic structures and institutions, and is failing to release its creativity and imagination."

But perhaps the strength of the Church is not only measured in its Sunday attendance. Mother's Union spokeswomen, Clare Berry, puts it like this:

"We believe that the church has the potential to be politically, socially and culturally as well as spiritually relevant to individuals, regardless of whether they are part of a church or religious community," said Clare Berry, spokeswoman at the Mother's Union.

The Church is seen to be present in society when it represents a whole range of wider issues – something we hope to do at the Festival.

We hope that the genius of Greenbelt is its relaxed relationship with the institutional church, its easy-going orthodoxy (what it thinks abut things), its creative orthopraxy (the way it does things), and its broad embrace.

As a festival, it occupies an unusual place in the modern Christian landscape – though perhaps this might not have seemed so unusual in earlier centuries. And we recognise that our associates and partners have to pay heed to the church networks supporting them perhaps more than we do directly.

This is why we’re pleased to work with you. Just as you enrich and diversify our festival base and expression, we believe that we can be a vehicle to help you make connections with new audiences, with the wider culture, and with a surprising future.

A new expression of church

Bishop Graham Cray was the Chair of the Festival two hundred years ago and still returns to speak from time to time. Last month his report, Mission-shaped Church, said that a “culture change is needed to let the fresh air in.” And that the church must abandon the idea that there is “one standard form of church” if it is to survive long into the 21st century.

The report suggests that changes in British society call for “a mixed economy” of church models in order to connect with people who have no concept of Christian faith or pattern of Sunday worship. It has long been the case that people who don’t – or wont – go to church feel right at home at Greenbelt and it is possible that this community of people may grow in the years ahead.

The report lists a range of “fresh expressions of church”. But to many of us, they’re ideas we already take for granted as being quite usual! Greenbelt is a place where new expressions of church have long found a platform.

The report gives special attention to finding better expressions of church for young people. Only 4% of children now attend Sunday school, as opposed to 55 % 100 years ago. It calls this a “time bomb”: a missionary strategy based on the hope that people will return to church someday is misplaced.

By contrast, last year 1,196 children under 11 years old enrolled for the kids’ stuff at Greenbelt, while The Mix kept 600 young people aged 11 -13 happy all weekend. And the numbers of teenagers aged 13 - 18 have been increasing every year for the past five years so that last year we sold youth tickets to 1,132 young people (and that doesn’t include all those who came on family tickets with their parents). In the bigger picture these are small numbers, but we hope that all the young people are finding a new way into the Christian story that will live with them as they grow and develop.

A new way of belonging

At our Angels weekend last weekend, John Bell spoke of Greenbelt modelling a very different sort of belonging – one perhaps unique to a festival one where we are really touched and engaged because it is a place that:
• forces us together physically to rub shoulders with one another

• counteracts the church’s overemphasis on the nuclear family as the primary unit of blessing in God’s economy

• says water is thicker than blood, and where baptism welcomes us into belonging in a new kind of family

• invites us to be touched by testimony of the marginalised and oppressed from others around the world

• accepts refugees from the church – both from the over-liberal and over-conservative wings of it

• touches people with truth, where we are woken up to the big issues that confront us today.
John said we should celebrate our willingness to live on the edge, a place where the common denominator of entrance and acceptance is a simple as ‘Are you looking for God?’ This is Greenbelt as a quest, not a formula; a journey, not a destination, a dance and not a doctrinal package.

The importance of festival

And Mike Riddell, one of our most popular speakers in recent years, goes further. He suggests that in post-Christian times the role of the church might in many instances be being transferred to “sporadic religious festivals” such as Greenbelt.

“These would be motivated not by any agenda to maintain or control a finite group of people, but rather to resource those who have determined their own spiritual pilgrimages and wish to from time to time to nourish their faith through drawing upon specific contributions.”

Certainly, many Greenbelters speak of the festival as being their church. And, although we wouldn’t want to set ourselves up as such, we must realise that they are expressing that, in Riddell’s words again: “it has become for them a centre where their identity is forged and their faith resourced, even though it happens but once a year.”

Last year, our audience spent nearly £70,000 on books at the festival, demonstrating that Greenbelters are an astute, imaginative and influential crowd. They are people who are thinking about their faith as well as trying to live it.

We are continually amazed that more than a thousand people make a donation to Greenbelt every month, such is their identification with what it represents – their trust in the Festival actually keeps it on the road!

At the very least, we hope that, in the Festival that we create with you, people are finding a new way of expressing friendship with God and each other – and authentic ways of worship that will, gradually, filter back into local Christian communities across the country.

The secret you all recognise

Last year we lost one of our most treasured Greenbelt family members, Mike Yaconnelli. Mike was someone who stuck with the festival in thick and thin. He saw in it a sign of the Kingdom he saw only rarely.

He described one Sunday morning Greenbelt communion service:

“I was moved to tears just looking over the crowd and seeing black, white, old, young, punker, straight, children, elderly, worshipping God in total unity. For ninety minutes, the real world of hatred, prejudice, pettiness, and selfishness were forgotten. We were the invisible Church made visible for an instant, and it was truly overwhelming. For a few fleeting moments I got a glimpse of what heaven will be like and I shall never forget it.”

He recognised something unique about a festival, about Greenbelt especially, that it can be a place that can hold argument and diversity together, in contrast to other places where issues are polarised and conflicts heightened.

This is the gift of Greenbelt we believe in and we hope you have recognised. We’re pleased to have you in on the secret. We have a hunch that Greenbelt can offer an increasingly vital, life-giving Christian presence in this country.

Thanks

You’ve helped Greenbelters translate debates about political engagement and international injustice into vigorous campaigning and you’ve entered into creative collaboration with us on many aspects of the festival.

You’ve enhanced the festival’s identity, helping Greenbelters re-imagine the church as an infectious global conspiracy working for God’s peace, healing and friendship in previously unimagined ways.

If you think, as we do, that Greenbelt might be an icon of the way the Church will be shaped in the coming years, then think about deepening your partnership with us – investing more in our community and drawing more from Greenbelt in ways that might boost the prospects of your own organisations.

We’re glad you have got involved. And we want you to continue being our associates and partners. You enrich our festival and we hope the festival resources your organisations. Together, all our futures might just depend on it.
=============================================
If you want to be 'more Greenbelt' ..... the best way is to become a 'Greenbelt Ange'l. There is over a thousand people like us who give financially each month andbecome more committed and involved ...... heavenly host stuff! See the website
www.greenbelt.org.uk
.
.

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.
this is special
long
worth a print
and
a read on a journey
and
a dwell
==================================


ONE DAY

I saw a kid from my class was walking home from school. His name was Kyle.
It looked like he was carrying all of his books. I thought to myself,
"Whywould anyone bring home all his books on a Friday? He must really be
a nerd."
I had quite a weekend planned (parties and a football game with my friends
tomorrow afternoon), so I shrugged my shoulders and went on.

As I was walking, I saw a bunch of kids running toward him. They ran at him,
knocking all his books out of his arms and tripping him so he landed in the
dirt. His glasses went flying, and I saw them land in the grass about ten
feet from him. He looked up and I saw this terrible sadness in his eyes.
My heart went out to him. So, I jogged over to him and as he crawled around
looking for his glasses, and I saw a tear in his eye. As I handed him his
glasses, I said, "Those guys are jerks. They really should get lives."
He looked at me and said, "Hey thanks!" There was a big smile on his face.
It was one of those smiles that showed real gratitude.

I helped him pick up his books, and asked him where he lived. As it turned
out, he lived near me, so I asked him why I had never seen him before. He
said he had gone to private school before now. I would have never hung out
with a private school kid before. We talked all the way home, and I carried
some of his books. He turned out to be a pretty cool kid. I asked him if he
wanted to play a little football with my friends. He said yes. We hung out
all weekend and the more I got to know Kyle, the more I liked him, and my
friends thought the same of him.

Monday morning came, and there was Kyle with the huge stack of books again.
I stopped him and said, "Boy, you are gonna really build some serious
muscles with this pile of books everyday!" He just laughed and handed me
half the books.

Over the next four years, Kyle and I became best friends. When we were
seniors, we began to think about college. Kyle decided on Georgetown, and I
was going to Duke. I knew that we would always be friends, that the miles
would never be a problem. He was going to be a doctor, and I was going for
business on a football scholarship.

Kyle was valedictorian of our class. I teased him all the time about being
a nerd. He had to prepare a speech for graduation. I was so glad it wasn't
me having to get up there and speak. Graduation day, I saw Kyle. He looked
great. He was one of those guys that really found himself during high
school. He filled out and actually looked good in glasses. He had more dates
than I had and all the girls loved him. Boy, sometimes I was jealous.

Today was one of those days. I could see that he was nervous about his
speech. So, I smacked him on the back and said, "Hey, big guy, you'll be
great!" He looked at me with one of those looks (the really grateful one)
and smiled. "Thanks," he said.

As he started his speech, he cleared his throat, and began. "Graduation is a
time to thank those who helped you make it through those tough years. Your
parents, your teachers, your siblings, maybe a coach...but mostly your
friends. I am here to tell all of you that being a friend to someone is the
best gift you can give them. I am going to tell you a story."
I just looked at my friend with disbelief as he told the story of the first
day we met. He had planned to kill himself over the weekend. He talked of
how he had cleaned out his locker so his Mom wouldn't have to do it later
and was carrying his stuff home. He looked hard at me and gave me a little
smile.
"Thankfully, I was saved. My friend saved me from doing the unspeakable."
I heard the gasp go through the crowd as this handsome, popular boy told us
all about his weakest moment. I saw his Mom and dad looking at me and
smiling that same grateful smile. Not until that moment did I realize it's
depth.


Never underestimate the power of your actions. With one small gesture you
can change a persons life. For better or for worse.

God puts us all in each other's lives to impact one another in some way.

Look for God in others.


"Friends are angels who lift us to our feet when our wings have trouble
remembering how to fly."

There is no beginning or end.
Yesterday is history.
Tomorrow is mystery.
Today is a gift.

.