benbell

Greenbelt

looking forward to seeing old friends and meeting new ones - particularly people from the blogging community.

Sitting on Walls

There is something special about the summer when young people are on holiday. Not only do they decorate the community centre and surrounding walls with permanent marker, climb on it’s roof dislodging tiles and causing it to leak but they also ‘just sit’ all day, day after day.

Today I spent the afternoon sitting on the wall with them. That is what is special - there is time, loads of it to ‘be’ with friends (I usually refer to them as ‘Young people’ but in fact they are more than just young to me, we have a friendship). There was no programme other than breaking up some old bits of wood left in the street, but there was a significant connection - that is what we as youth workers crave. It went far deeper than simply the subject matter of our conversations or ‘the interventions’ I could list. We shared stories, laughed and reflected.

I want to sit on some more walls tomorrow.

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p.s. sorry for the absence - i've been on my hols!

Stephen Fretwell

Stephen Fretwell was doing the iTunes Live gig last night and it was 'all good'.
My mate Sam introduced me to his music a while ago and I have really got into his album 'Magpie' so i was chuffed to be able to see him live. This Guy is one of the most talented singer-song writers around at the moment.  Five of the songs he did last night will be released on iTunes on the 9th Aug.