A HANDSHAKE FOR A CONVERSATION AND THE ICING ON MY STOLLEN 63
This morning the air is cold and the waxing moon is white against blue. I rather wanted there to be a smell of recent rain in the air even though I am a poet who doesn’t like petrichor, but it is clear and fresh this morning.
Alt text says this week’s photo is a piece of toast on a plate. I say it is indeed that very thing. I also say it is a piece of toast on a plate in which I saw a face whilst I was deciding whether marmite or marmalade would be the appropriate topping one morning. Perhaps a photograph of the stollen from Stollen and Wolle would have made a more appropriate photo for this week’s blog, but I ate that before thinking to capture its image. It was one of the nicest pieces of stollen I have tasted!
PodBean Link for those who like to listen
Looking back on this week I see there is a linking theme. A first meeting in real life with someone I know, a nearly meeting with someone famous, meeting someone I had never met before, meeting up with a friend who I did my B.Ed with all those moons ago.
Thursday saw me polishing my boots before meeting a fellow coach for the first time in real life. I could have dusted my boots off and worn them as they were, but it felt important to give them a shine for the outing. I could smell the polish all the way to Chester! These boots were my ‘going out of the house to work’ boots which means I have not worn them for fifteen months. (I have been out of the house, and I have worked, but the boots haven’t been part of either of those things!) It felt good to wear them again, and they walked me well. There’s a real expansion of conversation that can come when you meet someone in real life that you have only met before via a computer screen. It felt refreshing and shiny. And I think it’s good for boots and people to shine.
I wondered as I travelled home whether there was an analogy in there for coaching. I think that just like the polishing of good boots, if you find yourself robust and reliable, or indeed in need of some gentle buffing then sharing a coaching room can add that extra shine. I might need to work on that analogy a bit, but perhaps there’s something!
This week I was reflecting on it being a good thing to tell people when you really like something they do. And then I experienced this for myself when I received a testimonial from someone I have recently had the privilege of sharing thinking time with. I enjoyed time to revel in the proud glow that came from reading the words. I like words.
I also like to think that I am actually pretty good at remembering to let people know when they have brought me joy or when I admire something in particular that they do. This week included a moment when I found myself conflicted about offering one such compliment... I was standing in Chester and Ruby Wax walked past. I wanted to go up to her and let her know just how much I have always loved her comedy and thank her for sharing this talent. I have lost count of the amount of times I have laughed at the Ruby Wax Meets series and I never fail to be delighted by the episode where Ruby Wax and Bette Midler go shopping. It occurred to me that it might be intrusive to just go up to her in the street so I hung back, and decided not to. This is probably just as well because I can imagine I might have got over excited and suggested we could have a photo together on the Paddington bench. There’s that inner jaguar vs playful cat at work inside me again! But… if it happened again I would take time to deliver the compliment.
At the weekend, I was delighted to find myself sitting at a table near a man with a camera with the kind of lens that tells you this person loves photography. He was flicking through to see what he had taken photos of and I could sense the passion and pride. I found myself curious about the photos so I seized the moment and asked about his photography. We had a great conversation which completely brightened my morning and before we said goodbye he reached out to shake my hand. That’s me getting the equivalent of a Paul Hollywood handshake from a man called Dennis. And to think there was a version of me not so long ago that would have felt too shy to initiate a conversation.
The icing on my stollen this week was the perfect hug from a friend I haven’t seen since we graduated. I can’t quite put into words just how much this meeting meant to me. Her love of knitting and Kath’s wonderful knitting designs wove magic into the air so that we found ourselves in the same place at an event. Truly wonderful. Here’s to that kind of sparkle and shine.
Today I want to share one of my fruit flies poems because I have been remembering it fondly this week:
We Studied Fruit Flies in our Lunch Break
Held our lenses with care.
I remember the focus on looking,
how we blinked the spider legs
of our eyelashes clear out of sight.
Exactly what we charted escapes me,
like the day I dropped the lid
to expose the wrong chamber
and saw a thinning puff of flies
head for the ceiling.
Something to do with patterns of shading,
or dots like gently painted on freckles,
or simply the curve of the abdomen.
Now I find out
males vibrate those thin wings
to play a courtship song
and that people have been
watching their lives closely for years.
I hope there are conversations, observations and aromas in your week that bring extra joy your way.
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