Is He Puffin or Is He Vulture?

This morning the smell of cut grass is in the air, slightly hayed by yesterday’s sunshine and today’s gentle misty drizzle.

This week’s photo had to be ‘Ronnie Jumping for Joy at The Great Orme’. Not just because I love that orme, not just because it is the picture for June on the #LookThere calendar, but because of the alt text suggestion I got when I was preparing to share it on social media to welcome in the new month. This alt text has to be one of my absolute favourites… “May be an image of puffin and vulture.” It made me laugh each time I thought of it and wondered which one of those Ronnie was! In this Word document alt text says it’s a stuffed animal in the air, which makes me love the alternative version that appeared the other day even more.

I love to find humour in things. I find it motivational and joyous and when I reflect on my values it is right in there. I still laugh at how long it took me to list my values during my coaching training. It felt important to me to get it right and I wanted to rank them and see exactly what they were telling me about my journey in life so far. I now love providing coaching space for others in which they too can think about values and beliefs. Working 1:1 with people is such a privilege and I don’t think I will ever tire of it. When my values aren’t being met I feel like a jigsaw piece without a jigsaw and at times I have believed I was a jigsaw piece without a jigsaw.

Routine still appears in my top ten of values, but I am still thinking about what exactly that looks like for me, so perhaps it will evolve fully or be superceded. It’s interesting to ponder on that and wonder why routine might be important and what it would look like in its fully fledged state.

I was fortunate this past week to be able to continue to develop my poetry reading experience. Kath and I took a lovely trip to The Poetry Pharmacy in Bishops Castle, and I joined the open mic at Verbatim. Josephine Lay was reading there and it felt good to make the journey and be in the audience. We got to talk before the event and she read some of my favourite poems in her set. I love that feeling of anticipation to see what the poet will read, and I was also delighted that she included one of my poems in the set. That was very special.

People who have coached me (and readers of this blog) know that I have been thinking about my relationship with recognition. And to walk into a room and be recognised felt good to me. It also amused me to think how far I had come with this since September last year. Thank you for greeting me Pat, that was lovely of you and your poetry evening is super too! I used to pride myself on greeting people and helping them to feel welcome and it is lovely to now be on the other side of that too and to feel how good it feels.

Creativity and authenticity are right up there on my list of values and I love the moments when those two are working in harmony with one another. These moments shine. I’m grateful when this happens and am planning ways to make it happen more!

I did booth-babing again at the weekend and it was lovely to travel to a local show and get up early and drive west along the coast road as the morning eased itself into being. I am making it my mission now to see which direction I am travelling in as I heard myself describe the journey to someone as ‘coming down’ when it really wasn’t!

It was good to meet new people. There are always stories that surprise me and this weekends’ led to me finding out that there is a way of dancing in the air whilst harnessed to a tree so that the trunk becomes the ground and the swing that occurs gives space for shapes and moves. There was real freedom in that and in the noticing of how wonderful it is to listen to people beyond the general hellos and ‘nice to be heres’. With that kind of dance echoing in my head and my poem for the month recording being about The Rambert’s ‘Rooster’ I think it is about time I booked to go and see some live dance again.

I’ll leave you with the link to my reading of WATCHING THE RAMBERT AT THE MARLOWE in case you haven’t seen it! Hugest thanks to Alan Parry from The Broken Spine for having the great idea of creating a collection of poems in response to live art.