A dewey campervan morning this morning. Surfaces covered in a thin layer of moisture, cold to the touch. The air is chilly, breath on air and steam rising from hot coffee. A sky of thinning cloud and contrails against a blue sky. A light chill wind shakes the smaller branches, patrolled by blue tits on their morning forage. Timid and fast, they are always a delight to sit and watch. There is a hint of morning sunshine, but its heat and light is almost imperceptible. Starlings are back in the ash and I can hear the blackbird as well as a robin. Reflecting this morning on a full day of drumming at a school yesterday. A fabulous occasion, lots of sharing and huge amounts of rhythms and fun, but I noticed one thing. Volume. Now I am pretty skilled at this job, I have been doing it for 15 years or so, but no matter what tools in my personal armoury, the volume rose, rose and rose. There was a palpable sense that these children had stuff to let go of. Stuff they needed to put into the drum, that was at points beyond containment, an expression of something going on. There was no point in trying to contain it, let it go, let it happen, be with it, use it, don’t stop it, you’re just adding to the issue rather than the opportunity to have it said on the drum. Who am to squeeze them and corral them into containment. It was a valuable lesson for me and also the test of my skills and ability to hold that space, read the room, have a sense of the undercurrent, feel what’s going on as well as listen. Talking to staff later and understanding an OFSTED just occurring, SATs next week, the testing of children, the continued savage social toll of the pandemic on children and you understand the volume. People forever talk about the negative of loudness and volume and they do have a point, but this was not one of them. You read the room and work with it. People need to express themselves through every medium. If you provide that medium and then deny expression, we become an additional part of the problem. Lovely days people.
“ Silence is not always a sign of wisdom…”
Benjamin Franklin.
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