Yes, it’s arrived, so Marion tells Margaret Graham, Editor of  Frost Magazine. Hurrah.

It appears to have been a busy week: the plaster in the kitchen was left to dry out slowly as it’s scheduled to be painted this week ready for the units to be fitted. Pauline has been  busying herself cleaning the glass in the doors ready for the fabulous rainbow window film. Bob has been replacing some of the handles on the doors and as Marion says, ‘They look the business.’

While on the subject of Bob, Margaret Graham is very very put out, because Bob has a NEW pair of red shoes, when she still has not found her first pair. Moving on…

The new Projector has been delivered and the CCA have had a donation of a 32inch Telelvision for our computer room.

Marion says, ‘This room wants for nowt it hasn’t got. so Columbia Community Association will be the place to be. The grand news is that  the lovely Laura Baines from Equan is organising Free Digital Training. In addition she is delivering training at our centre for over 16’s who are currently unemployed and looking to gain meaningful employment or to re-enter the workplace.’ This really is an outstanding initiative.

Excellent news hot off the press: the CCA is now part of the Washington Heritage Partnership, in which groups work together to commemorate and fortify the heritage of Washington and wonderful Brady Square. ‘We are now displayed on their new banner,’ Marion says.

Fat Quarters arrived and showed the team the hats they are knitting for the Seamens’ Mission which is destined to bring a smile to Sister Mary.

The CCA also had a visit from Jim Benson, Principal Designer (Health & Safety) to Marion and the rest of us. He was  Marion says,  very nice and most complimentary; He even let her take his photograph for Frost Magazine. ‘Jim advised us it would be good practice to display a poster with the location of the nearest Defibrillator. Sound advice Sir, we took a photo of our neighbours and designed a poster.’

Lee at Faltec informed  Marion that their television was ready to collect, wall bracket n all…. The team are thrilled, ‘What a star, a man of his word. That’s two in one week, and both Smart TVs.’

A vast number of glasses were handed over to Ray for the Cambodian appeal and arrangements have to made with Kam from the Polish Centre for him to collect a cheque for money raised for the Ukrainian appeal from the food hamper raffle.‘The hats for the Seafarers keep on coming but there are never enough, so don’t stop knitting.’  Marion has even spurred Margaret, editor of Frost Magazine to get out her needles. She has knitted up five, of which Dick, (him indoors) has pinched one. BAD Dick.

The paint arrived, and low and behold it was the gaffers of Equan getting the brushes out. ‘How lucky are we having such amazing people wanting to bring our centre back to life. Brady Square rubs off on everyone, whoever darkens our doors is hooked with its magnetism.’ says Marion. Well, quite.

Left to right: Steven, Tom and Stu (the lovable Likely lads at work) to be rewarded at tea break with a slice of Linda’s Orange cake. Keiran arrived to take over the afternoon shift, and the lovely Beth. (Keiran is AKA Jurgen Klopp).

The colour of the flooring was chosen, grey to match the grey radiators and blinds. The TV was also mounted on the wall, the bookcase was mounted in the corner. Margaret is bringing more of her books under her writing names of Margaret Graham, Milly Adams and Annie Clarke so they can go there, along with others. The settee and reception table and chairs, donated by Faltec,  complete the picture. The problem is going to be… stopping Marion from moving in.

Friday was put aside for emptying the room ready for Corey to start the flooring this week. All hands-on deck after Callum has given the radiator a second coat of paint as  Mike,  Michael, and Dan helped clear the room.

The excitement is mounting at Columbia Community Centre, and thanks abound to all those who have supported and helped so far.

‘You are all appreciated more than you will ever know,’ say the committee. 

.Information: Columbia Community Association  Columbia uk Community Forum

Memories of Brady Square

 

I should say so, said the Frost Magazine Team

Frost Magazine team was intrigued by Not just a shop which does seem to be the place to discover unique home, fashion, giftware and artwork by University of Arts London students and alumni. Their products will not break the bank either, but are original enough to be  treasured by the recipient. Or why not keep a couple yourself. That’s not a question, but a hint. We think they are all fabulous and found something we would like to buy from each company, but had to sort of do an eyes shut lucky dip or we’d be here all day.

This resulted in these beauties: Eco felt slippers and  the utlra reasonable fabric pocket mirrors.Then we all felt the notebooks were a must. Do have a look at everything and buy your gifts in good time. You truly will not regret it.

Handmade  Eco Felt slippers £45                                 Fabric Pocket mirror £4

AURA QUE is an abbreviation of designer Laura Queening’ name, who founded the company in 2008 after graduating from London College of Fashion.

AURA QUE products are developed in collaboration between Laura and the small producers she works with in Asia. She sources and works with various charity handicraft units and fairtrade producer groups in Nepal, Vietnam and India to bring local sustainable materials, craft skills and designs to western markets, both for AURA QUE and bespoke projects.

The AURA QUE studio is based in Peckham, but the brand’s handbags, accessories, homeware and gifts are stocked by independent boutiques throughout Europe.

Get going on those big plans with this cool ‘Grand Ideas’ notebook.from Tom Boulton at Type Tom: or why not the Go For it cheerleader of a nobook.

Tom Boulton is a letterpress printer and typographic designer who lives and works by the sea in West Sussex. Obsessed with hand printing, hand making and restoring old machinery, he aims to revive interest in traditional printing skills that are sometimes considered obsolete.

Under his brand Type Tom, he hand prints and makes products including: greetings cards, notebooks, stationery packs and prints. Everything is designed and printed on letterpress machines from the 1900’s using his collection of antique wood poster and lead type.

Hand printed on a 1900’s Cropper Charlton Peerless letterpress by printer and typographic designer Tom Boulton, these notbooks  contain 36 pages (white plus 4 bright yellow).

Each notebook is hand bound using a traditional Japanese stab binding technique with a suitably contrasting thread.  Made from FSC certified card and 120gsm paper. A5 note pads @ £7.50 each but Type Tom offers more fabulous products.

Images courtesy of notjustashop.arts.ac.uk which is where you can have a really good look around and learn more about the craftsmen, and their Christmas, or anytime gifts.

These can be purchased on line,( notjustashop.arts.ac.uk) and at their physical shop in Holburn.

Yesterday we discovered how Calvin Niles, the Mindful Storyteller, navigated a series of, in his words ‘mini traumas’. Today we continue to explore how his story evolved. For Calvin with maelstrom of changes going on in his life, changing jobs seemed reckless, so he settled at his corporate job. I say settled because he admits to a deep sense of dissatisfaction but not enough to do something about it.

So Source, The Universe, God gave him something which would catch his attention.

Early one winter’s morning Calvin’s car span out of control on ice & flying across 3 lanes of traffic into the central reservation, crushing 3 sides of the car. He walked away miraculously with just a scratch on his elbow. Waiting for the pick-up truck to tow him & the car home he meditated. He received the clear message to call time on his corporate career. He’d been feeling discomfort at not living his passion or purpose but had dulled this down until The Universe made it crystal clear to him. He handed his notice in the next week & hasn’t looked back. Synchronicities abounded as they tend to, because once The Universe has out attention she likes to remind us she’s listening – it’s a gentle nod to come back to conscious awareness because you’d miss them if you weren’t paying attention.

For many there were cosmic & mystical happenings usually experienced during deep meditative practices that defy language or words so other worldly but sublimely peaceful & connected they are. Everyone’s experience is unique & true to them but once you’ve experienced this when others try to describe theirs you just get it even though words do not suffice.  The insights, healing & growth continue & do so today in ‘ripples’ as Calvin describes them.

And that’s led us to the next part in a spiritual journey: that there’s no end point to a more conscious awareness. No-one is ever finished. And that’s really quite liberating. Everyone’s path is different: some experience all these stages again & again, others may skip some stages. I know one person who I would describe as have a spontaneous awakening. He never meditated or practiced any contemplative study, he wasn’t religious, nothing epic happened in his life just one day he awakened to a deep connection to source. The point is this conscious awakening is possible for everyone & available for us all to experience, it’s our birth-right if you like.

Calvin exudes serenity, compassion & presence that speak volumes to the inner work he has done & reflect his inner peace & equilibrium & you’ll discover this energy is amongst those who have embarked on a more conscious & present way of living & being. At the end of our chat he summed up everything he’d been sharing with me in his poem, which I’d like to share with you:

Water and Fire – A Poem by Calvin Niles

A trickle is how it starts
Sometimes you don’t see it.
Too busy thinking about thoughts.

A spark is all it takes
Not everyone notices.
Too busy worrying about worries.

When the rivers burst their banks and forests turn to cinders
Everyone in the neighbourhood notices.
Wouldn’t you say?

Can you see the small things?

Do you feel the tiny tickle before the pain?
Or the little drizzle before the rain?
Can you spot the wildness within the tame?
Or your irks before you complain?
Or is it all the same?
Let me ask you again.

Do you feel the space between your breaths?
Or note the taste in your mouth of whatever’s left?
Do you feel abundant or bereft?
Are you in the now or seeking the next?
Can you do and not impress?
Or is give and not expect?
Each moment is a new opportunity to choose.

Choose to see not just look.
Choose to listen not just hear.
Choose to love.
Choose to forgive.
Choose to let go.
Choose to live.

Choose wisely.

Listen to Calvin’s podcasts:
3. Stories of Awakening
4. Mindful Conversations

Read Calvin’s Fiction Spiritual Adventure: The Sun Rises in Eastmoor available here
Facebook: @calvinnilesofficial
Instagram: @calvinniles
Website: www.calvinniles.com
Email: contact(at)calvinniles(dot)com

Calvin Niles is a mindful storyteller, guiding businesses & individuals in authentically telling their story. We met a couple of years ago co-presenting in a mindfulness online retreat & a friendship has blossomed. He recently asked me to share my story of spiritual awakening in his podcast – you can find out more in the link below.

So I thought it might be nice to turn the spotlight onto our mindful raconteur & asked Calvin if he would like to share his story of conscious awakening. What a wonderful morning we shared as he spoke publically for the first time about his journey from automatic pilot, unconscious living into a more present consciousness.

I wondered how on earth to do a master storyteller’s own story justice. I reflected on the similarities of our own distinctly unique but also familiar transitions, the catalysts, the moments of clarity & knowing, the shifts that ran as threads through our own stories but also through the story’s of others.

What is a spiritual awakening? I would describe it as a shift in consciousness, or as Marianne Williamson describes it: full recovery from the fractured sense of self. It’s not something you do or something to attain because it is much more about an inner sense of peace, equilibrium, a feeling not a doing.

It’s a different feeling, a different experience for everyone but at some point along the rocky road of life, opportunities will present themselves that open up the door to awareness, acceptance, lessons, learnings, healing & growth.

As children we are really quite present & more consciously aware. This can be conditioned out of us by society or trauma. We can become disconnected from our emotions & feelings because they were intense & frightening, disconnected from our mind body connection, thinking, acting & behaving unconsciously & automatically. We are beginning to understand that 80% have experienced some kind of trauma. That’s a lot of disconnected & unconscious people.

Calvin explained that even though he had grown up surrounded & influenced by the metaphysical texts of his mother’s bookshop he was not consciously aware of it nor was he immersed in this world. And a series of as he describes them, ‘mini traumas’ encouraged him to be less conscious & more disconnected with his own emotions.

Many who experience some kind of spiritual awakening experience a cataclysmic ‘life’ event which is a catalyst.

There’s the thing, The Universe wants us to learn the lessons we came here to & often they are presented gentle whispers & soft nudges so we often miss them. So the next one is a little louder or a more forceful nudge but still we may not heed the calling & so on until something gets so loud & so uncomfortable we have to do something about it: that cataclysmic event, the catalyst for the inner work.

Often these big events centre around a relationship, relationships being a spiritual practice, the playground of the ego & the spirit. For some, like Calvin & myself it was in the acrimonious ending of our marriages. For others a may be a different fractious relationship.

There is a catalyst & finally The Universe has got our attention.

In the wake of this seismic shift often there’s a dark night of the soul experience. For some this is a self-imposed exile, a time to turn inwards, do the inner work & practice, a conscious decision: they go on silent retreat, into rehab. For others is is more imposed upon them. And for many it’s a combination of both.

For Calvin the suffocating & deafening silence of an empty house when the kids spent time with their Mum after being so used to the hustle & bustle of a busy family life & home was excruciating. Something I completely empathize with.

This is when we tend to turn to our practices as sources of comfort, peace, guidance, surrender. And this is often when the magic starts to happen.

Insights, shifts, an inner knowing, a change in beliefs. For Calvin it was a realization he was part of something much bigger. I felt a deep sense of being taken care of. Whatever the words or what it looks & feels like it is a profound connection to Source, God, The Universe, whatever you want to call it.

From thereon you can’t un-know what has been revealed to you. But life tends to bumble on. Sometimes we dip & fall in & out consciousness. Sometimes there’s more work to do. And if we don’t take heed of the whispers & nudges these reminders The Universe or Source will do something else to catch our attention.

Find out tomorrow what was in store for our mindful storyteller.

Listen to Calvin’s podcasts:

1. Stories of Awakening
2. Mindful Conversations

Read Calvin Fiction Spiritual Adventure: The Sun Rises in Eastmoor available here

Facebook: @calvinnilesofficial

Instagram: @calvinniles

Website: www.calvinniles.com

Email: contact(at)calvinniles(dot)com

To listen to Alex & Calvin together please click here: https://youtu.be/q–PivQeINw