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Filtering by Tag: My other life
…I’ve been pondering what faith is, and what it means to hold on to faith when surrounded by drama and pain. Where to find God in it, how to SEE God in it, how to squash the guilt and shame of not being good enough or faith filled enough… especially in those moments when energy (physical and emotional) are low…
Read MoreThis is for the people who have been burned by the misguided platitudes that plague us in times of trial.
This is to remind us all of the power of words.
This is to make us think about what we say and why we say it… and the impact it has on someone.
Even when it’s meant well…
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…I had never even BEEN to a poetry slam, let alone been IN one…
At the end of February (just before lockdown happened….! You, know, when you could hug your friends and family, and enjoy life, mask-free… Do you remember it?!) I did something very out of my comfort-zone. My friend Francesca- always full of courage and creativity, talked me into taking part in the Margate Bookie Poetry Slam…
Well… I had never even BEEN to a poetry slam, let alone been IN one. The entire extent of my Poetry Slam knowledge was from watching 22 Jump Street…! I had no idea what to expect. All I knew was, I needed to write a piece of spoken word, under 2 minutes long and perform it………… so… I did. I wrote this piece especially for that competition (which I actually came in 3rd place- not bad for my first go, surround by seasoned slammers!) and was due to be cracking it out at The Write House open mic a few weeks later, but a little thing called pneumonia, got in the way. So I thought this would be a great time to share it a fresh with you now, a few months on.
This piece “The Fat Little Bee” was actually written as it begins…pondering outside. I love flying my kite, it’s such a soothing past time. I’ll often take myself off to the beach or up on a hill and just fly my kite and clear my head. And so in dribs and drabs the words came from there.
Bees have become a slight fascination of mine in the past few years, as i’ve learned more about their intricate beauty, but the NECESSITY of the bee in nature. They are incredible creatures, and when I found out that they entirely defy gravity with their wing-to-body ratio, well it was a no brainer.
You can take the words at face value, or you can look a bit deeper. Either way, I hope you get something great from the words.
And if you love a bee as much as I do, pop on over to my shop and stock up on “Bee Yourself” cards and badges!
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As I begin to share a few pieces of (no frills, just me to camera) spoken word on my social media channels, I thought I would pair them with an explanation of where the words came from.
And so my spoken word love began to grow.
In general, I really struggle with sharing creativity with the world… I find it really vulnerable and intrusive. When I create things that have a purpose… that can hide behind some kind of “other person” I’m much better… So a few years ago, I wrote my first ever piece of spoken word for some Easter media at Ashford Vineyard, (you can have a watch of it here: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1061574874241909 ) and because I was able to kind of hide behind the AV brand, it was much easier. Sharing it as me, is a struggle, but one that I’m trying to overcome. (Because really, how can you develop and grow and get better if you don’t share your work at every stage?!)
I was then invited to share an advent thought on Radio Ashford last Christmas, and so wrote a piece for that too. And so my spoken word love began to grow.
Just before lockdown my friend Francesca lovingly bullied me into performing at a poetry slam- I had never even heard of a poetry slam… I had zero idea of what to expect. So I wrote my third ever piece of spoken word specifically for the slam. It was SCARY. I might share it with you at another point, and give you the story behind that. But this is spoken word piece number 4 in my life.
As you may have seen from previous blogs, and things that I share, I am part of the leadership team at The Beehive. During lockdown, we’ve been having lots of online social times and catching up with our volunteers, which has been a great time to get to know each other better and build community. A few weeks ago at one of our socials we were chatting about what we’d been doing in lockdown and one of our amazing volunteers shared that she had taken up poetry again. She hadn’t written in a long time, and had begun to write again during lockdown. I told her that she should absolutely share some with us… And she did. She wrote a wonderful poem about The Beehive, and shared it with us, which was such a beautiful and tender moment. And then I realised I really shouldn’t be a hypocrite and encourage her to share, if I was too scared to do it myself.
And so… Here begins my bravery, inspired by Chris, and her own bravery.
This piece “What’s in a Tribe” was partially inspired by a good friend of mine. I had begun pondering about relationships and the quality of the people we surround ourselves with. I had started to write down bits and pieces to form the basis of a poem. Then 2 Sundays ago, some very close friends had their “commissioning service” at church (online)- They are about to go and start a brand new church up north (Vineyard Lincoln), and so this was their service where our church sent them off and said goodbye. They did a little talk during the service about why they’re going, etc. And at one point, Maddy spoke about her realisation of the importance of having REAL relationships, and challenged us to think about the people we surround ourselves with. To make sure we have “A Tribe” that have positive influences in our lives.
Well, that just fed perfectly into what I already had written, and shaped the rest of my spoken word.
“A Tribe” is something that I’ve heard a lot about in the last few months and years, and so I asked myself the question: “What is IN a tribe”? This is my musing, and deciphering of that phrase, and how it relates to the relationships I have.
I hope you enjoy. Have a watch, and let me know what you think, in the comments below!