Where have all the men gone

I have just been speaking with my friend JP, we often talk about the men in our society and where are they.

JP is doing a mentoring programme at the moment and there are only two men on the programme to support the young men of his area within Essex.

I often hear men complaining about our youth and why does the government not do something about their behaviour and we see on TV the results of their behaviour being acted out on our streets, what with knife crime etc.

And yet it is mostly women from all ethic backgrounds doing mentoring work I remember when I did it was mostly women but at that time there were more men. JP told me that the programme he is on said that the young men do not want to attend because they want male mentors.

So my challenge is this, our young men are crying out for good male role models so were are they why are we not stepping forward to help guide them, to show them right from wrong and to lead them by example.

I think its time we men started to behave like men and take up our rightful position we can not leave it all to the government etc.

There are of course men out there doing great work with our youth but I do believe we need a lot more.

If this has pushed any buttons for you then maybe it is worth taking a look at why if this has not pushed any buttons for you them maybe it is worth taking a look at why not.

With the best will in the world our young men need us, so come on guys step out and do it… you are more qualified than you know.

Best wishes

Geoffrey

A Drop of Water By Luci Hammond

Picture yourself as a drop of water. Now see yourself in a vast river, surrounded by millions and millions of other droplets.

The river rolls along its journey, and you travel with it, sometimes noticing and sometimes not.

The rivers path is sometimes rocky and turbulent, but you hold on to the other drops around you, sometimes you separate, but you return and the river eases its flow. You were frightened but you knew it would bring you back.

The rivers path is sometimes gentle and calm and you have time to view the things around you, to enjoy the journey.

On this journey, you are surrounded by other droplets, but there are millions more you will never know; yet you are part of the same river.

Those around you will change, depart, return, new ones will come, and old ones will leave for good, yet they remain part of the same river.

The river may sometimes get contaminated by an external force that leaks into your very being, but the purity of the river itself will eventually bring you back to your natural clear state.

Where does the river flow? It flows to the Great Ocean. It does not choose it just flows.

Other rivers flow into the Great Ocean. Rivers filled with the energy of trees, of animals, of rocks, of plants. They all flow towards the same end.

What is the Great Ocean? It is here that all energies meet.

The universal energy

As the sun rises above the Ocean, drops evaporate and are carried back to the rivers to continue the flow of life. There is no separate human energy, no tree energy, and no plant or rock energy.

We are all one. Hold a tree and know it, for it is you.

Every time I climb a tree

Every time I climb a tree
I scrape a leg or skin a knee -
And every time I climb a tree
I find some ants
Or dodge a bee
And get the ants
All over me;
And every time I climb a tree
Where have you been?
They say to me -
But don’t they know that I am free?
Every time I climb a tree.

By David McCord 1962