There is a line in a Curtis Mayfield tune that states ‘educated fools from uneducated schools’, this pretty much sums many current western education systems up for me. Having worked for many years with young people and adults that were somewhat removed from the ‘mainstream’ system, especially in terms of education, I always referred to my clients as ‘spirited’ (especially those who were REALLY ‘off the rails’).
This simple word, as opposed to ‘disadvantaged’ or ‘at risk’ or ‘dis-engaged’ allowed a huge shift in the way that I [and others around me] thought about such clients, importantly from the word go. My style of teaching encompasses the mind, body and spirit and I believe one of THE most powerful tools any educator can employ is the power of BELIEF. To believe that clients have their own capacity for growth [and positive change], when the time is right for them.
This is not to say that I am a guru or live a life of cave dwelling purity, it does mean however that I use my experiences, knowledge and [apparent] wisdom to plant a seed of belief and compassion with people that I choose to interact with. One can gain insight into some of my influences by browsing my blog, Bruce Lee for instance - a huge inspiration to me. My teaching almost the art of 'teaching without teaching', I prefer to view it as 'allowing others to be open to learning'. The age old difference of being a leader who is feared or a leader who is followed...
There is a quote that helps explain this: "If I accept you as you are, I will make you worse; however if I treat you as though you are what you are capable of becoming, I help you become that."
More on this in future posts...
Tuesday, 26 October 2010
Monday, 27 September 2010
Be Like Water Media
Hey all, I've been busy working on my BLW Media blog - I trust you'll enjoy the wealth of information on there, from philosophy to surf to ecology to music...
Thanks
BLWM
Thanks
BLWM
Wednesday, 2 June 2010
Tuesday, 1 June 2010
Saturday, 29 May 2010
Stone and bone...
Great site selling all sorts of handcrafted loveliness...http://www.etsy.com/shop/stoneandbone
Change is the only constant...
Some folks chat about climate change not being real or about over-exaggerated claims by people who care for the planet.
My thoughts on this are simple: be like water, fluid, flowing and fresh. It's plain and easy to deduce that surfing in clean seas and fresh waters is better than slicking about in crudeness, oil and filth.
My thoughts on this are simple: be like water, fluid, flowing and fresh. It's plain and easy to deduce that surfing in clean seas and fresh waters is better than slicking about in crudeness, oil and filth.
Monday, 24 May 2010
Be.Like.Water. Taoism
A few words on Taosim, it is why Be.Like.Water is called as it is.
Surfing has allowed more insight into the simplicity of life and brings me closer to Tao, my aim is love and literally to flow, as water, knowing only the form it takes. A drop of water in the ocean becomes the ocean. A cup filled with water becomes the cup.
Some extracts taken from Alan Watts:
Surfing has allowed more insight into the simplicity of life and brings me closer to Tao, my aim is love and literally to flow, as water, knowing only the form it takes. A drop of water in the ocean becomes the ocean. A cup filled with water becomes the cup.
Some extracts taken from Alan Watts:
"The tao is a certain kind of order, and this kind of order is not quite what we call order when we arrange everything geometrically in boxes, or in rows. That is a very crude kind of order, but when you look at a plant it is perfectly obvious that the plant has order. We recognize at once that is not a mess, but it is not symmetrical and it is not geometrical looking. The plant looks like a Chinese drawing, because they appreciated this kind of non-symmetrical order so much that it became an integral aspect of their painting. In the Chinese language this is called li, and the character for li means the markings in jade. It also means the grain in wood and the fiber in muscle. We could say, too, that clouds have li, marble has li, the human body has li. We all recognize it, and the artist copies it whether he is a landscape painter, a portrait painter, an abstract painter, or a non-objective painter. They all are trying to express the essence of li. The interesting thing is, that although we all know what it is, there is no way of defining it. Because tao is the course, we can also call li the watercourse, and the patterns of li are also the patterns of flowing water. We see those patterns of flow memorialized, as it were, as sculpture in the grain in wood, which is the flow of sap, in marble, in bones, in muscles. All these things are patterned according to the basic principles of flow. In the patterns of flowing water you will all kind of motifs from Chinese art, immediately recognizable, including the S-curve in the circle of yang-yin.
So li means then the order of flow, the wonderful dancing pattern of liquid, because Lao-tzu likens tao to water:
The great tao flows everywhere, to the left and to the right,For as he comments elsewhere, water always seeks the lowest level, which men abhor, because we are always trying to play games of one-upmanship, and be on top of each other. But Lao-tzu explains that the top position is the most insecure. Everybody wants to get to the top of the tree, but then if they do the tree will collapse."
It loves and nourishes all things, but does not lord it over them.
Tuesday, 11 May 2010
Wonderful folk
Was it as I watching my shadow loom its own projection onto a 30ft mysterious canvas constructed from the thick sea mist after chatting with the wonderful folk at Manobier, perhaps the couple in their 80's shed some new joi de vie upon my travels. Could perchance the solitude have evoked melding between I and the ocean blue?
Or, sat on the wall at The Kings Head and having my jaw ache from true laughter that happens when wonderful folk combine, was it this perhaps?
The artists, chemical heads Bobbing about, the shapers of alaia boards, the driftwood craft makers, the scribes, the illustrators and organisers, the travellers and fellow hobo's, the older folk reclining in their furniture comprised of a community. The shop owners and their tales, the charity shoppers, the film animators, the fish and chip shop birthday man, could it be that somehow the ocean sewed it's watery weave into a magical cloak that I shall forever wear?
It feels warm, there is pure love, the wonderful folk, the bluebells casting their hues along the wooded warriors path of lightness...
All folk are wonderful...
Or, sat on the wall at The Kings Head and having my jaw ache from true laughter that happens when wonderful folk combine, was it this perhaps?
The artists, chemical heads Bobbing about, the shapers of alaia boards, the driftwood craft makers, the scribes, the illustrators and organisers, the travellers and fellow hobo's, the older folk reclining in their furniture comprised of a community. The shop owners and their tales, the charity shoppers, the film animators, the fish and chip shop birthday man, could it be that somehow the ocean sewed it's watery weave into a magical cloak that I shall forever wear?
It feels warm, there is pure love, the wonderful folk, the bluebells casting their hues along the wooded warriors path of lightness...
All folk are wonderful...
Sunday, 25 April 2010
For the love...
Gonna lay my head down soon to sleep tonight,
wake some dreams until morning light,
taste the air of an adventure real
put my trust in all things positive
in my daily quest to truly live
and make right choices all the while I feel...
this ocean love rise up like a tide,
pushing all things negative aside
there’s no longer room for them inside
when all I live is for the ride,
that marrys me towards the glide
this is now my life
I feel alive!
And when I wake into fresh days
I pray that nature clears my cup
lifts with spirits, raises me up
sets in motion, removes the haze
brings me closer to potential
washes me in love torrential
Bring on the rain, let sunlight shine,
the glass conditions
flat spells too
big and stormy
log or stick
for the love of surf
for me
for you
TR 25.4.10
wake some dreams until morning light,
taste the air of an adventure real
put my trust in all things positive
in my daily quest to truly live
and make right choices all the while I feel...
this ocean love rise up like a tide,
pushing all things negative aside
there’s no longer room for them inside
when all I live is for the ride,
that marrys me towards the glide
this is now my life
I feel alive!
And when I wake into fresh days
I pray that nature clears my cup
lifts with spirits, raises me up
sets in motion, removes the haze
brings me closer to potential
washes me in love torrential
Bring on the rain, let sunlight shine,
the glass conditions
flat spells too
big and stormy
log or stick
for the love of surf
for me
for you
TR 25.4.10
Saturday, 24 April 2010
Sea Shame
Click here to watch rubbish clip!
BBC page documenting the amount of rubbish that is washed up on the beach!
BBC page documenting the amount of rubbish that is washed up on the beach!
Story of stuff!
Great clip about why simple, low impact living is best. Ironic that it should start with an advert about buying more stuff!
My take is that it isn't the 'stuff' 'out there' but the 'stuff' in our minds or our approach to 'stuff' that is the issue.
It's not an issue to own a wetsuit for instance, but surely true sustainability is about patching up our old wetsuits until they are hanging by a thread (buying second hand or e.g. Patagonia in the first place may help) therefore reducing initial impact, repairing, reusing and then recycling.
My take is that it isn't the 'stuff' 'out there' but the 'stuff' in our minds or our approach to 'stuff' that is the issue.
It's not an issue to own a wetsuit for instance, but surely true sustainability is about patching up our old wetsuits until they are hanging by a thread (buying second hand or e.g. Patagonia in the first place may help) therefore reducing initial impact, repairing, reusing and then recycling.
Friday, 23 April 2010
AJ boules and banter!
If two people can combine, and remain two people, then a wonder has occurred, for it is not the joining but the understanding of togetherness in individuality that cements us as one.
I reside in many places and one of these, close to my heart is right here. The magical fires we have shared, the boules games we have played. Chats and northern humour have kept dreams alive and sanity at bay.
The simplicity behind the esoteric is an invisible banner through which Alan and Jane flag, and both shed a gloriously bright light that cast many shadows, illuminating many paths…
No introduction is required, no goodbye needs to be voiced, we all are and we always will be.
Smiling and at peace, really.
For Alan and Jane and the winged friends that share this lovely space!
BLW 23.4.10
I reside in many places and one of these, close to my heart is right here. The magical fires we have shared, the boules games we have played. Chats and northern humour have kept dreams alive and sanity at bay.
The simplicity behind the esoteric is an invisible banner through which Alan and Jane flag, and both shed a gloriously bright light that cast many shadows, illuminating many paths…
No introduction is required, no goodbye needs to be voiced, we all are and we always will be.
Smiling and at peace, really.
For Alan and Jane and the winged friends that share this lovely space!
BLW 23.4.10
CASH
Been getting some good feedback from folks on this poem I wrote over 10yrs ago!
It's about cash!
Cash
Money, the paper god - how much is it worth ?
The Earth is elliptical; money makes the world go round...
Money equals food and clothes, something we depend on to live.
It should just be there to give.
Our dear sources install the pleasures of having it, the griefs of not.
How much money is a lot ?
It's about cash!
Cash
Money, the paper god - how much is it worth ?
The Earth is elliptical; money makes the world go round...
Money equals food and clothes, something we depend on to live.
It should just be there to give.
Our dear sources install the pleasures of having it, the griefs of not.
How much money is a lot ?
Wednesday, 21 April 2010
Tuesday, 20 April 2010
Surfing4peace
www.surfing4peace.org
What can be better, surfing and peace!
What can be better, surfing and peace!
Surfing 4 Peace was founded in the Summer of 2007 by legendary surf ambassador Dorian “Doc” Paskowitz, Arthur Rashkovan, an Israeli surfer and surf-industry professional, Dorian’s son David Paskowitz and 8-time world surfing champion Kelly Slater.
In order to implement projects and initiatives, Surfing 4 Peace relies on personal contributions of time and expertise from concerned members of the local and international surfing community, as well as its official project partners, Explore Corps and Gaza Surf Relief.
Be sure to check out S4P on:
Myspace:
Facebook
Camps Breakerz
www.campsbreakerz.com
Look out for djalaia special breakdance mix for these guys...coming soon - if they like it!!!
Look out for djalaia special breakdance mix for these guys...coming soon - if they like it!!!
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