2008-12: Listen louder, damn it! | Future Navigator

2008-12: Listen louder, damn it! | Future Navigator

There's a lot about the folks at Future Navigator that I Like. When I met them at a day on Leadership at Exeter University I was very inspired by what they do and stand for. Here, in this link, are some ideas that I find particularly inspiring.

In terms of what they are doing in the community, I remember being very touched by the story of how they transformed a Care Home into a place that sounded like you would actually want to go there ( the residents did, and so did the staff...!!) great they used their leadership and problem solving and visioning skills to make this happen.

They've also been engaged with people in some cities, looking at change that is happening and working with local leaders and services to find heart based response to questions like 'what are we going to do when the fighting breaks out' [over lack of resources, and too many people]

Getting, some more, the lesson of doing this Carework

Mr P is pretty rough this morning, he could be on the way out. it's painful to hear .. feel and see. actually sadness is what I feel. I feel a puling into that .. and the possibility, momentary windows of letting that go, letting him go , letting the wish to hold and keep him. . .and the other Careworker. I feel my body resting backwards and downwards feel the tension in my jaw. THIS is the place to be in right now. this place of awareness, of noticing and releasing . . NOTHING ELSE matters. - other than the tasks I have. Then, from here in this place I can choose what to do, flow what arises in me. for now I face and get this sadness. and this holding of my breath. When I breathe i sense the release and relief, not from a wish to do or change anything, simply from getting that this is what I must do, this is what my heart calls me to do. this is the profound, profound lesson right now. I sense a great gratitude for Mr. P and for spirit guiding me to be here. To get this to get this acceptance of my life and of life.

right here right now

As Mr P was having another possible heart attack I was meditating, some powerful realisings came to me;

It's beautiful this morning just before dawn fist light in the sky birds start to sing

peace descends light expands

focus of the one light Christ

every moment the drop of life fills

the rush of light life pauses completely still

08:05 Mr C whistled. pain in chest, called 999, paramedics here, gave aspirin and gtn spray under tongue. 08:45 called and spoke with son son in law.is coming around at about 10:30.

so those are the details, one of the paramedics was here, said been here before, it's got ghosts doesn't it.

as they left, Mr C expressing SUCH gratitude,and thank you very much and happy new year. one of the paramedics said, "another life saved". .. something detached and, just below the surface, the gratitude they have too.

Relief care work - residential home for older people

Today I did a 'shadow shift' at a residential home for elderly people. There's actually nothing that had really prepared me for such an experience .. working there for 7 hours is very different from the short visits I did as a teenager to see my grandfather in a care home and visiting several other people in care situations since.

What an extraordinary thing ... this getting old, and the need of being looked after in such a way. -- I knew the words 'personal care needs' and kind of knew what it meant. . . but .. . . what a sight, a 92 year old body, how the sagging flesh hangs on the bones .. . . not able to walk, or go to the toilet or wash unaided, -- this too, is how the human being can be .. . . NO face lifts or skin tucks, or goals. I had in this place a sense of a 'hotel', people checking in, to check out, and the so few possessions.

Within all this, and thru the day I was so grateful for the grounding I have in my spiritual practice, personal development awareness skills and to have done the recent movement work with Prapto and the Core Energy work with William Bloom.

This morning at 07:30, just before the shift, I went into the nearby park and, with still dew wet grass I moved barefoot .. and dropped deeper into my body. . . and the grass, and trees, and people passing through the park. how grateful I am to be able to do that. Through the day it reminded me to drop in and SO helped me hold myself through the pained non verbal crying of the woman with no speech trying to communicate her needs , the over many years 'resigned' comments of some of the staff,, the woman having an epileptic fit .. . shortly joined again by her husband and daughter. daughter in distress .. then the fear ripple that went thru as one of the relatives said that her father had complained about being bullied. and the heat, SO much heat amplifying it all.

Feeling SO grateful to just 'be' and 'wash the dishes' through all this, and love people . .. no matter what. I could feel the reaction ripple through my body, ( shock, fear, anger. . . ) noticing and holding that, letting it melt and being able to hold the space within all that's not in that situation that is SO under resourced and with such a sense of struggle and rush . .. though such love there too . .. .

Bless the hearts of those who are caring there, many for many years. This experience, though it does *not* feel like my major or main career path in my life, for now . . I sense that it is and has a rightness about me being there and doing it . .. something important about it.

WOW, yet another deeply profound experience, which moves yet again the landscape of my life . . . I feel like I'm doing some kind of advanced level learning course . . !!

And, with all these experiences so far this year, I wonder ... what IS my work to be... what is the main focus ... the reason for doing and being ..... this ( all that I am doing) .. now.