Greetings to all at Millman Street!

Your blog is looking great!
Have been reading all your posts regularly and with interest.
Keep it up. Kind regards,
Charles xx

Water

Machines and I ....

I am sore distressed! Today I went to my doctor for a check on my blood pressure. I was directed to a machine with the following instructions:

Sit on the chair, make yourself comfortable, Relax...

Put your left arm in the sleeve if you are right handed.
Put your right arm in the sleeve if left handed.

I lost my way at this point.

However, I think that you press a button, a green light appears. Something else happens and a result is printed. You remove this paper and take it to the nurse or doctor.

I fled with my blood pressure elevated to an alarming level. I can imagine the day when I do not see a doctor or nurse. I step into a telephone booth pick up the receiver and all my symptoms (even state of mind) are recorded and sent somehwere.

I feel measured, counted and unwell...
Am I making mountains out of machine mole hills?

Comments please.....Walter

Request for information

The sentiments of 19th century brutalists which we are mending in the 21st century.
E.g.

I am monarch of all I survey
My right there is none to dispute
From the centre
All round to the sea
I am lord of the fowl and the brute.

Walter would be grateful for author, date and rest of poem....thinks it is related to loneliness and isolation.

My Birds

When I was young a lovely thing happened, or so I think. I was walking around my parents' garden which was large and in the country, and saw that the gardener had cut a hedge fairly drastically and had bared a bird's nest. There were four baby birds in it, and of course the mother had flown and would definitely not be returning.

I took the babies with me and made a nest out of a small box with plenty of straw which luckily we had. The first day one baby died but the others thrived well and started to grow and demand to be fed with much noise everytime they saw someone!

They turned out to be thrushes and I named them Pip, Pop, and Pam.

Eventually they were growing up very quickly and needed to have exercise and to meet the outside world. I used to take them onto a lawn and they would walk around and try flying short distances with not much success! They became very daring, and actually flew up into a tree but couldn't fly down, so I had to climb up and rescue them!

After a while they became very grown-up and I felt it was time they could cope alone. I thought I would ignore them completely and hope for the best. And after a while they became wild birds, but for ages came down and sat on my arm and demanded to be fed!!

Polly

The picture is from the Official Web site of Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. www.outdooralabama.com

Paranoia

Am I paranoid, hyper-sensitive or just untrusting?

The other day I was struggling with my shopping. Dragging a wheeled container down some stairs, when a charming young lady offered to help me. My first re-action was an urban mugging. I immediately thought of losing my shopping. I smiled nervously, refused help with as much civility as I could manage and muttered "Thank you" more relieved than grateful.

After a while, the thought came to me that I must look more decrepit than I feel, I needed a new coat, I must stop struggling with shopping, I should not refuse help, do I look confused, bewildered, down at heel, do I need new shoes?

I said all this to my daughter who then told me that there are nice people in the world and I am really ok..... Walter

Counselling and Mediation

When I first entered a class at Mary Ward I always felt very self conscious as I thought I'd encounter a lot of young people and at my age I didn't want to make a fool of myself. Normally I get on with young people and in mediation you get a mixture of ages. Mediation is the reason I joined the counselling class and I felt it would enhance my mediation skills.

This class highlights the structure of counselling, listening, reflecting-back and feedback. I feel that positive regard is the way that the counsellor approaches his cases. For example, with empathy, having genuine regard for the feelings of those in need of counselling, accurately reading the signs of distress, not leading or advising but letting the patient come to a sensible conclusion by way of sensitive questioning.

Counselling in one sense is like mediation except that usually counselling it is one to one. In mediation more that one disputant can be involved. But the same feelings and method can be used in both cases. For example, overseeing the situation, standing back and letting the conversation flow, asking careful open questions to draw out the relevant information so that the client’s emotions are responded to and a true picture can emerge. It is important to listen to your own gut feeling. This skill can help you know the whole situation, and be used as a guide to bring your patient the relief they seek.

I liken the counsellor or mediator sessions to a conductor of an orchestra where he weaves the musical pieces with his body, arms and emotional and physical awareness of himself and the other person.

I enjoyed the course very much. I learnt so much and I know it made me a much better mediator for participating in these classes.

Peggy