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Tuesday 2 April 2003.
Yes, I left the Romford YMCA community last night. The last car boot load of files and desk objects etc were loaded with the help of Richard, Jacky, Val with Mr Singh in support, and I got away by about 9.30pm. Feel I have been so busy that I have not had major feelings about going in these latter days. Maybe it will run and catch me up in the next four days which I have taken as holiday before I start my three new jobs on Monday. The last 4 days I have been in Prague with the programme planning group regarding the (www.2003.eay.org ) European YMCA festival (3-9 August) for 8000 YMCA people. It was a working week-end and , never having been to Prague, I feel I need to go and see and enjoy proper!. I was asked to go because of my big gig experience, and of course, Greenbelt. So the last few days, since the big farewell, have been hectic. It was great beyond words to get a text from the main man Charlie the webmaster for this web site. He said that this new creation website was now launched. At the best opportunity, encouraged by friends Jason and Oyvin we grabbed the first look at www.pipwilson.com - Hey hey. With a big help from the funky receptionist at our hotel www.arthotel.cz we saw the first shot of art on the website screen and enjoyed. This hotel is recommended if you like style and excellent standards. Beautiful! Anyway, this is the first blog of many which you can catch almost daily if you place me in your 'favourites' list. --live-in-wonder- bhp.
Monday 7 April
Just got back from Lille - sound like a world traveller eh? Well Joan and me took four days off before starting the new work on Monday. Some people laughed, expecting that I would take a month off after 18 years at Romford YMCA, but I wanted a short break and then getting into my new lifestyle/work style before I go to the YMCA England National Assembly this next weekend. I did not think it would be good for me being on holiday for a month and constantly thinking of 'how things will be' sorta thing. It was good to drive away to France and experience the culture which of course included the excellent food, a glass of Champagne or two, street life and of course a late night Margarita. We stayed in a hotel converted from a monastery. A good time was had by all without the excuse of a birthday! The interesting thing which I thought about a lot while there I slept four times in that first day! First time in the car when we waited for the ferry, then on the ferry, and twice in the hotel all before we hit the town and really went to bed to sleep! I kept asking myself 'why?'. I put it down to the 'unwinding spring'. I was away fro all the work both YMCA and all the sorting needed at home (having brought home 18 years of files and artefacts) the brain needed a break (interesting, it is said that the body does not need sleep but only the brain !) So as I listen to BBC 'One World' playing/streaming music from Brazil - I love this DJ show which is repeated online for 7 days before the next programme is pumped down my broadband SO easy me and the cat Zig are going to zzzzz to rest the dance music brain (www.clubberstemple.com ) and get ready for the next mission full day. I must tell you about my conversation at the back of a coach with Oyvin,all about Mission. And don't forget the next nasty person you meet is a hurting person.
Tuesday 8th April.
The first day of the rest of...... yes three new jobs started today, or should I say this week? Today employed by YMCA England as the 'Christian and Spiritual Development Officer' for two days a week and Tuesdays/Wednesdays as Housing Group Worker' at Kingston YMCA. Thursdays I am employed by Welwyn YMCA as a 'Youth and Community Worker'. You will read the vibes as I live the life as you read the blog. I am appreciative that these humans and organizations will employ me. They will get everything I have to give "God wants what we have not what we haven't" - Living Bible bit here. Been to Greenbelt Board meeting tonight and always exciting. Fantastic peoples. Heaven must be like this. The site plan, always changing every meeting, is always exciting. The whole meeting becomes excited and vision-full when we picture the venues and the site. It will be different, do 'not' expect the 2002 site you regulars. So beautiful the talent, the uniqueness dribbling down the chins of these people is.......words will not come out of these two stubby typey fingers to describe. Ticket sales are good but book soon before the end of April to get the best prices and avoid not getting a seat at the diving place for pearls www.greenbelt.org.uk. Having left the Romford YMCA I have lost the use of my favouritr little Logitech digital camera coz it won't function with mac, so tomorrow I will get to a pc and become picmad again. You can see many fine results on www.romfordymca.org
Well .....time to click my favorite blogs and go to bed
-stay beautiful
Wednesday 9th April
Well here I am tired after my first day at school feel. All this in the first two days of my new job at Kingston. The people have been fantastic with me to me. It is said that the first four minutes of contact lasts forever. You never have a second chance to make a first impression! These guys have been glorious. The community. The welcome, the acceptance, the naturalness. Love it. So tired now. Makes me think/feel what a new resident coming to the YMCA feels on their first day. The bigness, the routines, the policies, the strangers all around which includes the staff. All the residents here have special needs at Kingston YMCA. All unique. All a precious one-off. All hand made and, like me, a broken offering to the world. Some have been through hell. Some still there. Some with a lifetime of rejection. Some feeling 'not ok' to the depth of their being. Some hiding all these feelings and stigmas with artificial distractions. Among the them are angels. Some are staff who seem to give and give and share the journeys with the stumbling ones. Some are residents themselves who have been blessed and supported through crucial times and are longer only 'YMCA takers' but have become 'YMCA makers'. They are giving back from their life skills to others who are stepping in their footprints. So beautiful. God must weep with Joy and weep with sadness at all the pain and the beauty, sorrow and love flow mingled Down' The good book says about the man called Jesus who we remember at Easter, ponder, linger and take in the madness of it all that he should die that we .............. And follow all year ever so inadequately. If Jesus came today into our culture maybe, maybe, that?s where he would be in our YMCA hostel. Looking such a scruff - and the special needs are so clear. So the stigma cuts into his soul just like that crown of thorns rammed on his head, but it hurts SO much more. I am tired but the reflection to the depth of my soul does me good. So bless you as you read and join us on this little journey over the coming days. We need each other and ___________________________________- 'fill in' space for you
Thursday 10th April.
Welwyn YMCA here. Just done my first day of the rest of my Welwyn life. Fine, thanx for asking. People. So many people. Beautiful people. Caring people. Warm. Welcoming. Accepting. It is strange for me as a 18 years veteran of one YMCA community. Strange to be entering into an existing community and stepping onto the moving train of life and relationships. "people get ready there's a train a comin' " sing the Blind Boys of Alabama Their new album great and don't I remember SO well their Greenbelt performance which rocked the place. Take me to them races I say.!! It is strange for me but also fantastic as I practice the strategy of listening, learning, lingering.
So I meet new people both staff and residents. Also a child or so who were also under the YMCA mission in terms of development experiences. We have so much to learn from the work with 'small people' development and the fragile adults growth and development methodology. Live music ended my day at Welwyn ....in the bar and talking in a sense of security to people who themselves feel secure in that environment. amen -live-in-wonder-
-bhp.
Tuesday 15th April
Well tomorrow I take Jesus on the train during holy week. I will be taking a big picture in a frame on three trains and three stations all the way through London showing a big photograph of Jesus standing outside a coffee bar in London Town. I will hold the picture so all can see and see the reaction . I am taking the pic to Kingston YMCA as I go for work. I want to take it so it is no a stunt but may as well use the thing as I go eh? Not been on the keys for a while as I have been to the big YMCA Nation Assembly over the week-end and my life has been somewhat hectic having started three jobs in the last week. Now I hit the second week and trust that I form some good relationships as I spend time with both staff and residents for the next three days. It is a tall order having two YMCAs to work in and need to make positive relationships with pace but without rushing. Watch this space. Went to visit Val, my ex Chairman, today as I travelled back from my meeting in London. Bad tooth/gum infection and a good illustration of my saying "what do you think about when you have toothache?......answer: Toothache" When working with people who have issues in their lives, big, painful, tough, demanding it is often just not possible for them to consider the other issues in life which we may want to explore, development, faith, spirituality, God, Jesus, the Easter story or even the high profile war. "An empty belly has no ears " says the African proverb and people are not ready to consider the more beautiful ,the richness and directional things which give so many others such purpose and satisfaction. So we live to love, so we live to fill that belly, so we cure that toothache or that oppression whatever it may be. Not only so they are prepared then for the receipt of the Christian message, as important and vital that may be, but because God wants, I believe, that person to grow/develop into wholeness ........all part of the SHALOM that the 'Prince of Shalom' came for (at Christmas) and died for (at Easter). The yearning, our yearning needs to be for that person to experience the wholeness in whatever steps they chose to make. I hope, always, that will be a response to the Love that is given so freely by the God of Love. So the picture on the train is saying something but never ever so much as the closeness of a relationship which includes both sharing their brokenness. Sharing their toothache together and their wonder experiences. Went to visit my ex-PA tonight-Gill. For me a model of wholeness. Sets me in the shade. Having worked together for 16 years we know each other so well and, as I said at my recent farewell, she is an Angel sent by God. Just to talk again is so fantastic and ........just what I said above about relationships ............. they, these relationships, can be the most beautiful thing as well, in so many sad cases, be the most painful."The glory of God is a person fully alive"
hmmmm ..................watch this space ......I intend to continue
that journey
-bhp
Thursday 17th April
Back from Kingston YMCA through the London commuter system on the hottest April day for years. Feel tired and satisfied. Second session in the new community is so much better than day one. I have met many people both staff and residents and they are beginning to know who I am and of course that feeds my value and my need to be recognized. Don't we all? So much to tell you about the journey by train and the people so much about people and now I drop in front of the little glass screen and dribble down my chin a few wonders from the many as I listen to my favourite DJ Gilles Peterson. You can catch it always on line through the Radio one/BBC website. It has been 'full on' and w/e too so not had a break for the brain with all the new work which I am giving my all. One flash of light was to see someone at my new YMCA checking my website and I was delighted to see the new design and content - Charlie has been busy and not just done the basics but the colour and the shape and the funkyness is LARGE!!!
I will get to the groove of a daily blog, t is just the busyness of life and especially the travelling and prep for the day/s. I plan to do a new e-Newsletter soon (as I get a minute) and I know that will link many thousands of you blog readers together have so much to leak. Must share this link before I go;
http://www.rejesus.co.uk/spirituality/seven_sayings/index.html
It is an animated set of Easter readings done by my friend and soul bonded mate called Martin Wroe. You will need a few moment and volume to take in and reflect as it takes you through a journey of pain not the real pain as experienced by the man I took on the train but the pain is to be shared and ..................... it helps to
'kick the darkness until it bleeds daylight' come Easter Sunday. See you soon, Same blog-place, right here.
-bhp-
In Church GOOD FRIDAY
Words on the service sheet - I write - I have to.
Now dead
So what
But
Then
Darkness over the whole land:
He is dead
This special miracle worker
This different kind of communicator
This crowd pleaser
This crowd blesser
This crowd lover
This individual lover
A good life, too early to die
33 so young
33 such a waste
33 if only he had lived longer
33 if only he was alive now
33 if only? Then I could meet him, get to know him? Strike up something special.
Maybe a relationship like no other!
Maybe a life changing, directional type of relationship ?
If only
What?
WHAT?
What? - you say he is still around?
Still available?
Still keen?
Still open to a relationship?
Still willing to bless?
What?
Tuesday 22nd April
Here's what I'm reading at the moment. Liquid Church by Pete Ward.
Wednesday 23rd April - part one.
YOU ARE A BEAUTIFUL HUMAN PERSON: Thought I would do the back page for those who fancy a little read and of course, if you are reading this you are the stylie type of human who will read my thoughts . So here goes. Hope from now on I will be running a 9.30pm session every Tuesday. The idea is for us, as many who can make it, to come and hang out together and discuss things. I think we benefit much when we talk together, especially when we listen as well as talk. It is right that God gave us two ears and one mouth and that tells us something about communication. So we will have an hour or so with each other just chilling and chatting. I have feelings, passions and opinions. I don't have an opinion about everything so your view can influence mine. I am a broken offering to life. My life I carry around experiences which have damaged. At the same time they, the same hurts, are the things which have made me grow and develop. It is only when we talk together that we find out about what is going on inside.
We have allsorts of thoughts slushing around in our heads like a cement mixer. When we pour out the concrete it sets and becomes more real. So, when we talk things, we make things more concrete and we learn. Life is 'life long learning'. I was born in St Helens Lancashire, the home of glass and Rugby League. At school and in the park we never played football, even as little kids, we played rugby. My Dad was a miner in the coal mines. He didn't go to war because of that and he also was an 'air raid warden' which meant helping people when the bombs dropped. I was born as the second world war broke out. See if you can work out the year?
I was the youngest of four boys and was a mistake. I fought my way through childhood and that was just with my brothers! Also my education was poor. Terrible. I had no interest in school only messing about. But at 15 some thing happened (I will tell you if you ask). I then started work in a factory at 15 and trained to be a fitter/engineer building winches for ships followed by another factory building engines for trains - and playing rugby all the time. Then at 21 some thing happened to change my whole purpose and direction?..
So that is a wee bit of me. What I wanna do is to find out about your journey, and I?ll bet you could write a book about it! I did, it is called 'Gutter Feelings' . Very soon I will be adding a few more chapters because you will be in it because we will journey together in the coming months and I will love it. So please, see you Tuesday.
Pip Wilson
PS:
I will be naked more
I will memorise clouds
There is no law that says you shall not study a sunset
Beyond heavy woolens, beyond the Nightly News, beyond the
reach of what hurts you, beyond politics (national, local, sexual),beyond beyond
(From Goodby Silverstein's advertising campaign for the Norwegian Cruise Line)
Wednesday 23rd April - part two.
I love it, when you get close. The human contact of course - but I mean the relational stuff. Love it when you can get so close you can share the real meaning in life. Spending time at a meal table with two humans who themselves openly talk about the damage done to them - or the damage done by themselves. The broken humans, the broken offerings to life (and here I include myself) bring something special to relationships.
So I sat and dined with them, more importantly, communicated to each other. It was not long before the questions flowed. 'get beyond the level one' I say, as soon as possible. We move to a different level so I asked them both 'what do you think is the greatest quality in the other person? Fantastically the words flowed so quickly, so sincere, so out there but also so sensitive. The listening and the acceptance and the kindness, the generosity. They shared and glowed to hear the other affirm. Love it! It was a deliberate developmental question aimed at facilitating them building each other up in world which so often savagely knocks them down. It was also about relational work, their relationships and them with me too. Then the next question was about the two doors. Do you know that one If you don't let me know and I will do it yet again with you because it is so fantastic (again for development). And they continued to talk openly and warmly with each other and myself.
I have written a mission statement for my new work and I will share...in the next blog methinks. It helps me focus and say to myself does this programme I am thinking, designing, proposing - does it fit the mission?. I want to be mission focused in all things and not just doing the admirable things like meeting needs and building relationships. I want to be proactive. I am a man with a mission (non oppressively), but freely chosen with self determined hope. I yearn for the wholeness of these damaged bhp's, but so much I will not add to the deprivation and create dependency.
I am off - and ask me to tell you the 'bus driver' joke next time we meet.
Mission Statement - discussion paper.
The housing mission statement is the delivery of opportunities for self-determined individual holistic development, in body mind and spirit.
-Building relationships.
-Creating an environment in a climate of trust.
-Meeting needs by means of the community of members, staff and residents.
-Proactive in mission.
-Sensitive in all things.
-Putting Christian principals into practice which exercise body mind and spirit for all.
All in pursuit of fulfilling the worldwide aims and purposes of the YMCA We will: Comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable
Friday 25th April.
Here is an album I am listening at the moment. It's by Goldfrapp. To see what else I like musically, check out my
favourite music page.
I always end up sitting down in front of my mac when I am tired and yes the end of the day. I'm always in the mood for the late night music. My favourites are - take a moment to click:-
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/world/latejunction.shtml
The late junction on BBC R3 love the world stuff and the range is massive, and I like the presenters -informed women
sometimes I tape and listen multiple times
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/urban/oneworld/
One World, BBCR1 on Thursday nights at midnight. So it is Friday really. It is dance music. DJ creations from all over the world. I loved the feature on Norwegian artistes recently.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/dance/petetong/
My long lasting tape activity from the leader in dance music which is appealing and always new and fresh. Love it driving!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/urban/peterson/
My favourite DJ and I take him to bed with me, on holiday, sleepless nights, car, train. If you have broadband you can stream him into your computer anytime. Worldwide!
Just home from working with people and feeling the early hardships of few people knowing me and time will be the key. "it is hard here" a young woman said ?it will take time for people to trust you" Good advice. I will take it. One young woman is avoiding me. A stand out case. An example of no eye contact, and body language telling me ,like a smack in the jaw keep your distance. I respect that. Will let you know her first move. I will back well off, have backed off.
Now week three. And some people have been generous in making the first move. A sign of their security and concern for others. Love it. So much to reflect on. If I could type I would be liquid for you, so I stumble along and trust you, unknown you, will stay with me.
The next person you meet who is unlovely, love them. It is easy to love the lovely
Sunday 27th April.
Just to share my personal mission statement. I know it is a risk to share but, I trust.
Me - Pip Wilson - Mission Statement
-I will be an effective lover.
-I will live to love -
-modelled on my developing commitment, understanding and faith in God.
-I will continue to believe, behave, and affirm that all individual persons are unique, special and valuable - beautiful human persons. I will demonstrate that, verbalise that.
-I will live to love myself, family, friends, colleagues and active socially and cosmically.
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