I am re reading some of Tim Gallway’s Inner Game insights and I liked this from Peter Block’s forward on the book … “We learn fast when we pay attention to what is happening now – the present moment and for what the world really is and not what it could be. Learning becomes a function of attention and noticing more than instruction. It’s about noticing what is going on around you without judgement, fear or the need to control.” As Tim describes it, there are 2 games going on when playing tennis, facilitating or just about anything. There’s the Inner …

For the first time in 12 months, my right knee is feeling strong and stable. I haven’t needed to ice it in 3 weeks. The muscles around my knee, particularly the inside of the quads, are bulking up and the tone is back. However, I’ll never get back the medial cartilage that was removed last September. I turned 40 in March and at least a third of my male friends have had the same operation. By the fifth decade, our bodies start to wear out. A combination of abuse, heredity and just living life starts to catch up. In response …

For the first time in weeks I haven’t uttered a single word for hours. I am alone, but not lonely. I’ve been practicing sitting meditation on the foreshore in Cowes. The tension in my hands and the sounds around me were particularly noticeable tonight … long after the sun dipped out of sight. Solitude is a precious gift and I am attracted to the wee challenges that solitude brings. For me, new and old questions emerge from time alone. Not during the ‘unfocussed’ and ‘busy’ times alone, but rather the times when we allow ourselves to be still … non …

Today, my Gran is on her deathbed, and with family assembled around time seems to have slowed down a little. Fond memories of my childhood have flooded back – me and my sister spent countless weekend with her and Pa. They have remained together forever, married for 70 years and have a 1930’s-gritty-style of tenacity, courage and will to live and be together. They are Scottish through and through and their Glaswegian ways have never left them. My friend Chris Corrigan replied to an earlier tweet with some comforting words … “there is nothing more incredible to be in the …

I am facilitating a 4 day forum (The ACAPTA Flashpoint Forum) with a great bunch of people from the world of Circus and Physical Theatre. We have people here in sydney from street performers to federal funders … trapeze acrobats to administrators. Today in Open Space, the whole group came together for 90 minutes to simply play and share games. Viv has written about this urge here and here … for me it seemed the group was yearning to step away from the ‘intellectual’ stuff and ‘connect’ with each other in deeper and more human ways – and so they …