Mainly Studying

Day 72 – 84 16^th Oct – 27^th Oct

On 16^th October, I drove up to Birmingham with Ronni and Jimmy in the car, and have settled into another base camp (my friend Moyra’s house) where my main activity will be writing and studying with some diversions for shopping, walking, having good coffee and seeing old friends local to this part of the world. The walking round here is surprisingly rural looking! Though it was all a bit of shock when it snowed today when we were out.

Ronni and Jimmy have taken a little while to settle, especially Jimmy who seems to be frightened of pretty much everything and spent much of his first 24 hours here behind the sofa or under the dining table. He has been here before, so this was a slightly extreme reaction! He is much more relaxed now but prone to hiding at any unfamiliar noise. He is not keen on fireworks, which are beginning to feature as bonfire night and Diwali approach!

I have been consolidating my reading on “leading with emotional intelligence” and started to pull together some training material primarily aimed at clergykind. In a more playful and creative mood, I have decided to create this through a master powerpoint, with working through it as and when at your own pace in mind (and probably primarily sharing the material with people via datasticks/CDs). I should be able to use the specific topics in interactive sessions too.  I have found it a bit difficult to distil my studies into applicable chunks, as there is a lot of theory and not enough application (in my opinion). There is much to learn and muse on, and I have found my own reflections on the material really helpful. I have separated out and concentrated on the work of Edwin Friedman on leadership, which though this builds on the family systems theory work of Bowen, has enough wisdom within it to be of value in understanding church leadership without getting overwhelmed in stuff specific to our families of origin.

As I have finished my owl embroidery (but still need to mount it), I have moved into experimenting with beading alongside my current knitting project. Various snowflakes are beginning to emerge and I shall probably use these as examples for the coming craft retreat up in a couple of week’s time.