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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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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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..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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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 ....

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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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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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