What lies behind us and
what lies before us
are tiny matters
compared with what lies
inside us.
Oliver Wendle Holmes
I grow in interacting situations.
They are the most risky and
I am often sensitively cautious –
sometimes scared.
Spending time with individuals and groups
who are communicating ‘Level 5’ excites me.
It’s real.
It drives me.
Mary Lou said,
‘I don’t want feelings any more’.
She was a resident in the YMCA and
we used to talk regularly over a meal
(our Dining Room is the one place
which brings people together
in the some sort of Community -
‘bedsit YMCAs’ don’t have the same chance
to cultivate a whole range of contact –
from eye contact/hello grins, to
real level 5 communication).
Mary Lou was riddled with feelings
and beautiful with them.
An open book.
She was great at being in contact
with her own feelings,
which is great compared with the many
who bury them deep and so turning into ulcers –
or worse!
She was hopeless at managing those feelings.
That’s the big issue with feelings –
having them,
owning them without being controlled by them.
Was Ghandi referring to you when,
in response to the question about
his worst experience –
in the whole of his life, he said
‘The hard hearted of the educated’.
Are you a real SAD-O?
Are you tight and controlled –
not willing to share any vulnerability?
Transparency is just for your window
overlooking your garden – eh?
‘The single most worthwhile thing in my life ….
Was to admit I had a problem with food,
drugs and alcohol’.
Elton John
