.. .. .. this song one of the best in my life ...... most ...........

power-full
meanig-full
beauty-full

..... and I really like this version .....

Mary J Blige and U2 - One
Single released 3rd April

Undisputed Queen of soul music and three-time Grammy winner Mary J Blige teams up with U2 for the release of their stunning version of U2 classic ‘One’.
The two giants of popular music first performed the song together at a Hurricane Katrina benefit and recently reprised the performance at the 2006 Grammy Awards.
‘One’ is taken from Mary’s hugely successful new Geffen/Island Records Group album ‘The Breakthrough’, which entered the US charts at no. 1 and has sold over 2 million copies since its release in mid-December.
The album has also raced to Gold status in the UK and looks set to be Blige’s most successful record of her 20 million-selling 8-album career.

'One' will be released on 2 CD single formats, featuring exclusive B-side material.
The video for 'One' features both U2 and Mary J Blige and will be accessed via a digital insert through the maxi CD.

Tracklisting:

2 track CD
1. One
2. Can’t Hide From Luv - Live

Maxi CD
1. One
2. I’m Goin‚ Down ˆ Live
3. My Life 05
4. One video ˆ accessed via digital insert.

...... Mary J Blige will be performing 'One' on the following TV shows:


BBC2 Top of the Pops - 2nd April
ITV GMTV - 5th April

.

... you may guess that when I am working at home ..... or out and about with a wireless connection - I do a few quick blogs every day.

When I am away and busy all day - sometimes long days ...... I have the mobile off and struggle to do even one decent blog.

Midst other things I spent hours in the Apple Store today trying to get my G4 Laptop fixed. I have had a bad boy problem in my iphoto system and I am trying to rescue 35,000 photoes.

Thought it was done till I got home and the beautiful non-human Mac crashed and won't even open.
Now this is bad news.
It has all my powerpoint stuff on - all the blobs and other tools I use in training so ........... it is a big STINK from me today.

Sorry about not being a good-in-touch human.
I have not even done my monthly e-Newsletter for three months and I planned to do that today before the sun sets on the month. .......... sooooooo will try to do that tomorrow or over the week-end.

So ..... thinking about you and your day ........
..... bBlessed in your reality ............... know ......
......... really know that you are special and unique ......... and know and remind yourself that you are beautiful ......



I will be back here with the clicks in about 24 hours or less ........




.

"We who are rich
are often demanding and difficult.
We shut ourselves up in our apartments and may even use a watchdog to defend our property.

Poor people, of course, have nothing to defend and often share the little they have.

When people have all the material things they need, they seem not to need each other.

They are self-sufficient.
There is no interdependence.
There is no love.

In a poor community, however,
there is often a lot of mutual help and sharing of goods,
as well as help from outside.
Poverty can even become a cement of unity."

Jean Vanier

"Relationships are the source of our growth as persons.

There must be at least one person with whom he or she is totally open and feels totally safe at the same time"

Paul Tournier

you
are
beautiful

Beautiful
human
persons

....... sometimes I go to venues and they don't have wireless connection.
Sometimes they do and you have to pay.
Some cities now have city wide free wireless so .......
.... come on ....... ye deprived communities ....... catch up you guys!

I am at Belfast airport with two hours, never to waste,down- time ....... and I want to click some thoughts your way ...... but I don't know what.

So
click click think .....
.......... I will click about ::
1 What I have been doing
2 My feelings - tapping into the interior Pip
3 My reflections.

I have been leading some training as part of a series ........ a team of beautiful humans who line-manage others.
The topic has been about Mission and Vision. About getting a personal Mission Statement - a Project Mission Statement and then about breaking it down into achievable strategic targets ........ it is about being 'Mission led' rather than finance led - or reactive led ....
I worked these beautiful humans hard. They presented four times each to the rest of the group. Great creative thinking which inspires me.

In the middle of all that was a funeral.
We all went.
The first ever for me - in Belfast.
A privilege.

Working hard, when we returned to base, was tougher because of the raw emotions - as we had all experienced the funeral.
Beautiful humans meeting in a beautiful modern business centre - with no wireless!!!!


2 I feel knackered.
4 am - I am allergic to.
I feel that the sessions were hard work for them and me.
All worked hard but it was pushing the boundaries - outside comfort zones - in terms of thinking, writing and presenting.
But I love it because ........ the humans ..... it is electric being with them.

I feel good about a new Blob tool called - 'Blob Lads and Dads'.
It is fantastic to use and it is great to hear the observations of people.
How they connect with the Blob tool.
How the Blobs connect with their lives - speak into their life experience and draw things out.

I feel it is a privilege to work with a group - month after month ....... and we can journey together down the road less travelled .............
I feel I have, because I really have, been involved in the university of Life.

3 It is early to reflect.
Always I could have done better.
Always the climate could have been better conducted.
Always I could have drawn more from the spiritual journey of the humans present.

It is no use wishing away the raw emotions ........
wishing away the funeral ...........
wishing away the contextual stuff
BECAUSE this is real life.

It was good.
It will build up the foundations for the next one.
I will await the trickle down as they reflect ........ and I will do more reflecting mysef ........

I am off to check in and wait in the departure lounge for an hour ......... and let this blog connect with the pip wilson dot com blogsite when I get home .......... through my wireless connection ...... !


You are beautiful



.

.... and I will tell you about this exciting gathering today - tomorrow ........ or when I come up for air ...... or it may be Thursday but ...... worth waiting ....

... I am a
Happy Human ....

....... and these two add to my pleasure ......
Nice pic eh?

Wellllllll - I can make the Jose Gonzalez Concert after all ........ a gig has been cancelled so I can go with my little Sheila while the other Sheila goes to S Africa again .....

I am always pleased when someone gives me the opposite to the 'come on'........ and then over time they let me in to their world ............. it takes time and loving ...... I want to do that and I ask questions ......

"When we ask questions
we help humans to communicate
with themselves"

Asking 'how are you feeling' - and waiting for an answer - rather than walking speedily on ........ is a wondrous thing ......
............ so many humans are never asked that question.

If we answer it it means doing an interior survey - instantly.
It means connecting with feelings and being able to articulate them.
Not easy.
Not easy if being honest.
Not easy if you don't trust the human looking into your eyes ................

It is beautiful to enter into a trusting intimate relationship with someone - without someone thinking you are trying to get into their knickers .............. like so many male on female interactions.
It is beautiful to be accepted and humans will only feel accepted when they are accepted and ...... who goes first?
You!

Knowing that there is a God ......... and knowing that we are acceptable with all his/her insight - is a a real good start.
But some are not there with that.
Fair enough.
But sometimes - all times - we need to to have the experience of human love first ......... are you familiar with the word incarnation?

Did I ever tell you the story about the little boy who was crying when his Dad was putting him to bed?

He said to his son
"Don't cry - God's arms will be around you all the night long"
And the little boy said ::

"But I want God with skin on"

You are his skin ................................




.

Alice:
Which way should I go?

Cat:
That depends on where you are going.

Alice:
I don’t know where I am going.

Cat:
Then it doesn’t matter which way you go.






.

"Another belief of mine:
that everyone else my age is an adult,
whereas I am merely in disguise"





Margaret Atwood

.

Tonight .. .. ..


... on the news I heard a report suggesting Police Racism .. .. .. .. .. and a death in custody.

It seems to me that there is such a massive risk of the Police service, being such a close and closed community, and the risk is leaving the most vulnerable as the ones who are most likely to be abused or neglected.

My experiences in the past ........ I have experienced first hand reports of groups of Police throwing stink bombs into cells when young people were being held awaiting charges.
Also Police carrying water pistols in patrol vehicles and shooting them at teenagers they passed in the street, or spraying them with water from squeezy bottles.
Can you believe that they also were wearing of little red flags in their caps - yes Police officers - wearing them while on patrol. These flags were sported according to the number of times they have ‘nicked’ the three most scapegoated teenagers who I knew. Throwing cups of water over prisoners when stripped for forensic purposes. Physical blows to those arrested.

To top it all they were also wearing ‘funny masks’ in Police vehicles and in police stations, and playing practical jokes on prisoners in the cells. There were also throwing cups of water over prisoners when stripped for forensic purposes ......... and Physical blows to those arrested


You may have difficulty in believing all this, but I have evidence that it is true.

They’re helpless and powerless against the police.
I believe that this position is completely wrong and dangerous; it’s not surprising the young people kick against this so hard, and that there is so much hatred and bitterness against not only the police but also anybody seen as in power and authority. With such authority and control, this power can so easily be abused.

The Police must never ever be supervised and inspected by their own. Club members.
I once spent a time in a Police canteen drinking tea. The Police investigators were there drinking tea with the officers who they could be investigating tomorrow.

Justice must be for everyone ..............





.

What sort of Manager or Leader are you?. . . . . . . . . . . . .


.... I think it relates to how we are a Parent too .......

...... or in all relationships when control, nasty word, can be misused.

Sometimes we can oppress another human without us being sesitive to the fact ......



.

Mothers
Day


.... and Fab4Fathertoo .......

.... we met with the Sheilas at a new venue - Browns Hotel in the West End.

We had afternoon tea and pink Champagne to startwith hey hey ...... then it was sandwiches and scones (with jam and clotted cream - my eating plan pressed the pause button today!)
..... then some fancy cakes and a pot and pot of Peppermint tea-for me!
And they just kept refilling the plates!

The big thing was hanging out with the Sheilas .......Iloveem ....... and we talked non stop and caught up on our news and the wider family news and you ........... well yes - we included you ......

I like Mothers Day .....





ps ...... if you are ever in town we could meet for afternoon tea eh?


.

This is a group of Unique people who worked together at R*mford YMCA in their Holiday Programme for Seven Weeks in 2002 - and still in contact .... !

It has Representation from US, Malta, Poland, England, Bulgaria, Romania, Senegal, Ukraine, Russia, India & Japan... and I loveemloveem

>>>>> 5 <<<<<

reflective
interiorquiet
mindbuzzingplanning
yearning
triggeringemotions

... these are 5 words to describe my life at the moment ......... and yours?

And others ::

paul ::
regret
bestnevergoodenough
hope
forgiveness
grace

Katie
productive
focused
tired
hopefuldreaming
feelingtheway


.

Uncle
Norman .. ..

.... someone prays in our Church ...... and now her Uncle Norman is free ...

..... and the fellow workers for Peace say ........
"Our hearts are filled with joy today as we heard that Harmeet Singh Sooden, Jim Loney and Norman Kember have been safely released in Baghdad. Christian Peacemaker Teams rejoices with their families and friends at the expectation of their return to their loved ones and community. Together we have endured uncertainty, hope, fear, grief and now joy during the four months since they were abducted in Baghdad."
Doug Pritchard and Carol Rose
co-directors of Christian Peacemaker Teams.

See the item on the Greenbelter Norman ..... on the Greenbelt website ......



.

I hurt myself today to see if I still feel I focus on the pain the only thing that's real the needle tears a hole the old familiar sting try to kill it all away but I remember everything what have I become? my sweetest friend everyone I know goes away in the end and you could have it all my empire of dirt I will let you down I will make you hurt I wear this crown of thorns upon my liar's chair full of broken thoughts I cannot repair beneath the stains of time the feelings disappear you are someone else I am still right here what have I become? my sweetest friend everyone I know goes away in the end and you could have it all my empire of dirt I will let you down I will make you hurt if I could start again a million miles away I would keep myself I would find a way I saw the movie moving I never use the word 'very' Never bought the LP 'Ring of Fire' but just heard this on the Radio Late Junction' catch it on Listen again was moved......... .

So many humans I know try to bury strong feelings ...........

Life experiences from our recent or distant past - often leave strong - powerful feelings.

To bury them inside is not the answer.

These things are not buried dead.
They are alive
inside us.

These things are buried alive
and they stay alive and hurt and
drain emotional energy from us.
They are not dead
they are
active inside

These little packages .....
maybe bigger packages,
are like parcels all wrapped up
with string and selotape.

They are buried because
they are uncomfortable to live with
- to handle
- to manage.

They all need to be pulled out from the gut
pulled out from the acid indigestion
and opened up.
Examined and dealt with.

Then
they can be buried dead.
Not inside us alive
- buried alive ......






you are beautiful



.

Greenbelt Festival

..... hey this sounds good ..... I would like to go to this Festival this year .... I guess I would love it love it ...

The Greenbelt festival is the largest Christian arts and music festival in the world, taking place annually in England during the last bank holiday weekend in August.
Since its start in 1974, Greenbelt has grown from a youth event, to which 1500 people came, to seeing crowds of nearly 30,000 in the mid-1980s. It now has a focus that is much broader than youth. The festival regularly attracts the biggest names of Christian music and many mainstream musicians. Those that have played the festival in the past include old rockers, new folksters and soaring pop-stars. That has encompassed U2, Cliff Richard, Bruce Cockburn, Steve Taylor, Daniel Amos, Over the Rhine, Iona, Amy Grant, Miles Cain, Lamb, dfg, Lambchop, Goldie, Jamelia, After the Fire, The Polyphonic Spree and Delirious?.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ....... read the rest.



.

Amanda

You are beautiful

1 Good thing about
MOTHERS DAY
is ..... it is so much nearer Fathers Day!!!

2 Another Good thing about Mothers Day is ::
we will be seeing the Sheilas - here enclosed.

We are meeting in some afternoon tea place in central London and I have been told to go by train so I can drink .......
3 ........ Champagne

I will tell you all about it of course.

Joy has just got back from S Africa and she goes again on the 1st April ........... and Ann is shooting the next series of Pimp my Ride ........... I will catch you up on all the gossip soon.

If you 'listen again' to the Pimp Master, Westwood, the hottest Hip-Hop DJ in the UK ..... lst Fridays show on Radio One ........ you can here him giving me a big 'big up' within the first 15 minutes ......




.

If you have food in the fridge, clothes on your back, a roof over your head and a place to sleep, you are richer than 75% of this world.








Thanx Mark

"
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I...
I took the one less travelled by,
And that has made all the difference.
"
Robert Frost

..... whatever you feel like ...... you are ........

..... I am here and I wonder ..... you?


...... thinking not just about your geography ............ not just about your relationships ........ not just about your work ...... your creativity ...... but thinking ALSO about you soul ....
.... the heart of you ...... the interior you .....

ME?
I have a commitment on this cyber pages - to tell you who I am.
That means - being 'level five' with you.
Spill.

I feel a bit
tired
light headed
TV off
One World - the radio programme ON (flowing from my iPod to lounge stereo)

always frustrated because when I click these words
the spell check pops up and says "you are inadequate"
as if I didn't know without you reminder you damn clever machine

Fretting a little because I have 80% prepared for a session tomorrow
it is late in terms of fire in the belly
and
I need
to be
100%

Funny my work - I cannot just go in and then do it.
I always have to prepare.
Often for the unknown.
Unknown humans (bhp's the lot)
Unknown environment
Unknown expectations
Unknown, sometimes, what the real objectives of theirs are.

So I feel not fully prepared
I want to be and that means to have several options so I can busk into a different method to reach the objectives.

Joan is away visiting her fragile Mother and that always impacts on my mood and the same with Zig.
I am without the 'f' word this week.
The 'f' word in out house is Football
Joan watches all the top games on TV and supports about ten teams - this week it is ALL off the screen.
I admire her and her passion for the game - but it is not for me.
Joan is the creative one in the kitchen - always doing new creative dishes. Today it was porridge for breakfast, soup for lunch and caesar chicken salad for dinner. Good and healthy.

Last night I read in my book (Etty Hillesum - diaries written by her in 1942 as they lived under the German occupation in Amsterdam)
"Life is great and good and fascinating and eternal, and if you dwell on it so much on yourself and flounder and fluff about, you miss the mighty, eternal current that is life"
I get so much from this beautiful human as she writes, bit like a blog - to unknown readers, such beautiful reflections and Level Five .........

I am ok - are you ok?

You
are
beautiful








.

My Fourth New Album this year ....


Sergio Mendes :: 'Timeless'.

Out of Brazil ...................drawing Stars to play on his album. Stevie Wonder/Black Eyed Peas/India Irie/Jill Scott/Erykah Badu/Q-Tip/ John Legand and more ........

I never recommend ......... just that I like it!






you are beautiful

My Blob friend here ....... in a Blob groove .....

Did you ever read the Youthwork Magazine Review of the BIG BOOK OF BLOBS?

HERE IS IS :::

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
YOUTHWORK MAGAZINE - REVIEW OCTOBER 2005
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Youthwork review

‘One of the most dynamic,
flexible and innovative resources
that youth work world has ever seen.’

There you go, stick that on the back cover because we mean every word.
Pip and Ian’s ‘Blob Tree’ resource has been around for nearly twenty years now, making a great name for itself over that time.
An A4 monochrome image, bereft of writing, it displays a large tree filled with sexless, shapeless, ageless ‘blob people’. Like stick men who’ve chomped one Big Mac too many, their simple yet animated forms are used to represent emotions, decisions, personality types and social situations. A person can point to the blob whose stance, expression or activity they most identify with, and perhaps explain why. And that’s it. Essentially, it’s just a tree full of conversation-starting blobs.

But that, of course, is the brilliance of it. Because of its simplicity, the tree becomes the perfect resource when attempting to get people to talk about themselves and their social interactions. Children enjoy the visual focus, and can discuss important issues; adults identify with the emotions presented in these abstract characters. And there’s no language involved, so the image can be used to the same effect anywhere in the world.
Pip and Ian return here with a whole book of variations on the theme, as their army of cartoons populate more than 50 new scenes. Spread throughout four themed categories, they place the blobs in a range of tree-substitutes – a playground, a protest march, a football match, a community and so on – each designed to spark a different kind of conversation and interaction.

Some examples: on looking at the book now (after all, which blob you are today doesn’t always define which blob you’ll be tomorrow), I define myself as the blob at the back of the cinema; and the blob walking through one of the ‘blob doors’. Simple and silly as they seemed at first, these little people have had a profound effect on my thoughts today.

That’s why this book is so vitally important to youth work in the broadest sense. These illustrations, though almost text free, are deceptively complex and engaging. The potential for both getting people to talk and releasing them to think, is awesome.

The acid test: I’ve tried this with young people already, and had stunning conversations off the back of it. If Youthwork ran the resource Oscars, Pip and Ian’s Big Book of Blobs would have just walked away with the award for Best Picture(s).

Martin Saunders
Editor of Youthwork
Oct 2005


.

Baljinder Dhillon, Striker.


www.borntodothis.com

Click on the GREEN to enlarge - please ...

......... been out to meet .. .. ..
Mr Ian Beautiful Human Blob Tree Artist Long - in the New Piccadilly of course .........
...... it is wondrous to be creative together and we are designing the future of Blobs and their Road Less Travelled ............ and we are becoming humans together too .....

....... last night had a fab curry with the most beautiful friends Gill and Steve ........... we just talked and talked and the food was welcome too ...... we went home to watch our Rugby League Team - "come on the Saints" ........ they were playing the second placed team in the league - Bradford Bulls.
We are in first place and we were the only two teams unbeaten in the Super League ...... until last night hey hey ......... we won so convincingly ....... I was bouncing around like a schoolboy at 2am ........ loveitloveit really do ......... next Friday we are on the TV again playing away to the tough team Hull.

Big John had joined us Friday morning ....... he had missed a nights sleep to drive to us and come to the all day Friday Greenbelt meeting and we only saw him a little when he got home to the Leaning Towers of Wilson dot com - until we steamed off for our curry - leaving him indoors to manage a massive take-away curry and to baby mind our beautiful non-human Zig d cat.
As expected - he was sleeping like a babe when we got home but had slipped out of the Wilson Mansions before we woke from our full of rugby dreams celebration sleep .......... what a top geezer is Big John.

The rest of today/tonight I went into emotional shut down .......... a recovery plan ....... and then we watched the Saturday Rugby League ........... (no - no watching the other code) ........ and then we soaked in the 'Constant Gardner' our new DVD.

All sort of things going on in my interior too ............. I will spill those in the coming days in this very Blogspot ...........

................ and just want to say ........

You are beautiful ...........

.

Gill Holmes

you are beautiful

Steve Holmes

you are beautiful

Joan Wilson

Beautiful human

Ian Long

beautiful human

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 the heat of the morning sun.
'But the beach goes on for miles
and there are millions of starfish',
said the man.
'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 and said ::
'It makes a difference to this one'.



.

God help us to live slowly:
To move simply:
To look softly:
To allow emptiness:
To let the heart create for us.
Amen.

© Michael Leunig

.... the last news I have just got from ...

:::::::::::::: U2Land :::::::::::::


Wednesday March 15th, 2006. Sydney

I was planning on resurrecting the tour diary today, being the day we were scheduled to fly to Auckland for the load in tomorrow. However, its now old news that the remainder of the tour dates have been postponed, so I’m not going anywhere further than the corner cafe. Its been a very weird week indeed - much akin to driving into a wall. Regular readers will understand the colossal amount of kinetic energy acquired by a tour of this scale, and so perhaps be able to appreciate the magnitude of the explosion when it stops dead with no warning.

I’ve found myself in quite an odd emotional state since then. Its felt like bereavement, exacerbated enormously by the tour party being scattered for the break at the time of the announcement. I was just going to lunch with a friend in Sydney when the text message came through. Others actually heard it on the radio or were phoned my friends who’d heard a rumour. I was completely spun out for quite a few days, and still am, to some degree. We’ve experienced cancelations before; when a case of laryngitis has brought a tour to its knees or perhaps most spectacularly when Bill Berry had a brain hemorrhage on stage during an R.E.M. show. That was about as shocking as it gets, but at least we, the tour personnel, were together as a group before, during and after the event. Hopelessly codependent as it sounds, having to cope with the shock of a tour vanishing is immeasurably harder when faced in isolation. I’ve really felt for the people who went home for the break - to just get a call saying “don’t come back…”

I saw Bono on Monday which made me feel a lot better. We came to Sydney on the same flight from Buenos Aires and he’s been here ever since. He was due to head out on Tuesday, so had a bit of a do at his rented waterside mansion on Monday night. I arrived early so we had about half an hour to catch up before other guests began to arrive. We were laughing at each other, “...look at us...men without a tour…” but I was very glad to get all the news and see that there was clearly never a moment when the band considered just canceling and bailing. They have also been very concerned and generous about the arrangements with all the tour staff - under the circumstances they’ve really handled the situation admirably, which makes a man feel good.

Its really been very strange and I’m intrigued to find myself overwhelmed by a rather uncharacteristic desire to just go home. Here I am in one of my favourite spots on the earth’s crust, the weather’s beautiful and I’ve got all the time in the world. I should be making holiday plans but all I can think of is getting home to London, where I’m reliably informed its freezing. I had arranged to make a couple more trips out of Sydney this week, to see friends down the coast and in the mountains, but I just can’t face going anywhere. I even canceled a plan to go home via San Francisco, which is out of character in the extreme. I’m prepared for the fact that I might enter a world of regret about my early departure from Australia when I’m back in the cold, grey reality of London, but at a moment like this its probably best to go with my instincts.

Till November, then...