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I have been thinking about words a lot lately. Yes I know I haven't been very attentive to the blogging sort of words but I find I have yet to work out how to stretch life to fit everything in! Anyway, this month, songs, chapters, articles, poems and even limericks have fallen out of this head and down the fingertips. Words can be the most imperfect way to describe feelings and experiences although we have few other ways of sharing with each other the depths of emotions/intensity of life's events. Of course we have music and art both of which somehow capture the unspoken elements of experience, the intensity, the depth in much more visceral and effective ways than words ever can. Maybe words have moved us away from the experience somehow leaving many sensitively adrift, unable to connect any longer with the feelings inherent in the expression? Two recent events illustrate this. I attended a lovely party held by the vastly talented Sally Strawberry  http://www.sallystrawberry.com/story.php  last weekend to hear the finished version of her latest song. There were a select group of us and the whole point of the event was to hear the song. Some way into the evening the song was announced and played and I was really dismayed at the amount of guests who just continued to talk and ignore the whole reason we were there anyway. Apart from being unsupportive of a friend and downright rude, I wonder if the sensitive disconnection, possibly encouraged by our speedy modern lifestyles, was partly to blame? The second thing was my friend Mark (see previous blog) mentioned that he'd been to see some folk acts at a local venue who were technically competent but somehow missing something. This reminded me of some acts I have seen on the local 'Art Centre' scene, they are always technically brilliant, not a note wrong but often the whole evening has left me curiously unfulfilled. The emotion/passion/depth was just not there, the musicians were not engaged with their own music just reproducing it like automatons. Was this the same phenomena I wonder?

Some good words to tell you about though, are those of my inspirational friend Paul Crawford who's novel 'Nothing Purple Nothing Black' has just been released in paperback  http://www.amazon.co.uk/Nothing-Purple-Black-Paul-Crawford/dp/1484039580 it's had some rave reviews and is jolly good read, get your copy today! I should probably get commission! So Paul is at the head of a very exciting social revolution which is beginning in this country aimed towards bringing the heart back into the world of healthcare, those words above about the loss of connectivity between words and heart (essentially) are beginning to be addressed in the research that is being done at the Centre for Social Futures http://www.institutemh.org.uk/x-about-us-x/our-centres/centre-for-social-futures The movement is so exciting, maybe this will be the beginning of a brand new era where we all work together in a spirit of mutual recovery for the betterment of the world! Yes it's true I am a hippy at heart