It was a beautiful spring afternoon when the group members of Writers Ink – Creative Writing Group – based at Coalville Library, Leicester, undertook a Street Wisdom walk to seek answers and writing inspiration. We took the walks slow and steady noticing anything and everything. One member remarked “what is insignificant becomes significant”. Who knew a discarded hairband would become an infinity sign? Who would ordinarily notice a tiny sticker on the pavement that said the word Champion? We all thoroughly enjoyed the walk. One member mentioned she had never been to certain areas of the town – even having lived here for a while, and found it very refreshing. Another member noticed there were lots of opposites – magnolia next to holly and old edwardian fronts next to modern shops – finding the positioning of opposites charming. We all said we noticed what we wouldn’t have ordinarily and the group leader found her question “how can I procrastinate less?” answered in chalk written on a wall – the answer was “be here”. Insightful and inspirational. Thank you!

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Am I in the right place? Should I stay here or should I move? This seemed to be the common question for our group as we set out through the various stages of Street Wisdom under a warm spring sun.

For one of us the answer came directly from Dante Alighieri – or rather from his marble version in Piazza dei Signori – who reminded her of the reason she had moved to Italy in the first place: for its heritage and for the literature. “I’ve just seen an amazing building that I hadn’t seen before, and this is the route I walk every day to go to work. I feel that I can be happy anywhere so why not stay here a little bit longer?” she told the group after the first warm-up exercise.

The warm-up brought some insight for another one of the group: taking time to walk rather than stride as a remedy against the stress she had been suffering from. Slowing… right… down proved to be very difficult but incredibly effective for everyone.

Another participant, who is struggling with her desire to get into drawing but feels she might not be good enough, was offered some concise but necessary wisdom by a street painter. “Go for it!” was his reaction when she put her question to him.

As the group facilitator, I had the chance to spend some time in a corner of the city that is very familiar to me, with my phone switched off and time on my hands. I came to like the dance of the buses coming and going in three different directions, and observed a canoeist paddling against the current on the river Adige: the perfect metaphor!

The group reunited at Cappa Café and we told our stories with a spritz in our hands and a big smile on our faces.

Giulia Pesante

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Our session last week in Soho Square involved a group of 5 lovely people Charlotte,Annette, Keiko, Jamie and Ian.

Despite the rain at the start, everyone was keen to get involved and really embraced the introduction and ‘street tuning’ exercises. The sun came out ( as if on order ) as the group headed off on their Street Quests, before we met at a local coffee house to discuss what they had all discovered.

There were some really interesting themes. One of my favourite lines was – ‘the importance getting lost before you can find what you are looking for’. One of the group, looking for a possible change of direction in life, saw a number of resonant signs and notices, whilst another literally bumped into an old acquaintance who works in a field that she is looking to move into ( coincidence….?). One member of the group loved the ‘permission just to wander’ and find new and interesting passageways that lead off, oft travelled thoroughfares.

Everybody felt the Street listening to them and their questions, and although not all received specific responses to their questions; the Street gave everybody plenty to ponder, the chance to look at the world in a different way and a relaxed and soulful start to the day.

Nick Hammond @digital_filter

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Since then I’ve tried to be more open minded about such things, so a damp grey Thursday morning saw me joining 4 other explorers and our guide Nick in Soho Square to see what this was all about.

We started with a brief explanation of Street Wisdom and then went into a few tuning exercises each of about 5 minutes in order to prepare for our longer walk and exploration of our question.

I was surprised at how easily we all (yup, including me) seemed to drop into the technique and really gain unexpected insights and observations.

The BIG question session was, effectively, an extension of each of the shorter ones allowing us time to follow thoughts and patterns. I’ve been pondering accepting a voluntary trusteeship in a charity but to do so would mean taking up time that I could be doing other more fun or profitable things.

I noticed 2 buildings in the square… upon one were painted the words ‘House of Charity’ the other was a former Hospital for Women, supported by voluntary contributions. Further down the street was a sign for free wifi then, later, another for free hair consultations at a salon… suggesting it was OK not to charge for things? The sign for the restaurant L’Escargot with its picture of snails led me to question whether I had to rush into a decision or, possibly, that I was behaving like a snail… so get on with it.

Later in the cafe, talking about our walks, it came to me that an analogy I used to use in business could be applied to our learning. It’s like when you do a jigsaw puzzle. You start with all the edges to create a framework into which you drop the remaining pieces.

What I’d experienced in Street Wisdom was the tuning of my mind and a framework to recognise clues and to collect my observations. Whether I put them together in the right order or I discard some pieces is up to me but, maybe, the street does have the answers or, at least a route to them.

Not bad for an old sceptic, eh?

Ian Cooper

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Although I had some idea of what might be involved, I found the experience, under David’s sensitive and kindly tutelage, both more enjoyable and certainly more profound than I expected.

Told to ‘go towards what attracts you’ on Jermyn Street seemed like hedonistic licence, and I did indeed wander into a well-known emporium for a spot of cheese-tasting. In fact, a heightened awareness of both taste and smell (with the Psalmist’s line ‘O taste and see that the Lord is good’ playing at the back of my mind) along with sustained and patient looking shaped my day. Wandering and observing is something I like to do anyway but doing it very slowly and repeatedly was new. I saw sculpture I had not seen before and stopped to observe pattern, shape and form in building sites and scaffolding as much as grand architecture and laid-out lawns.

The question which I wrestled with in the longer session had to do with patience (and my own impatience) and what it meant to me in the context of my marriage as we both grow older and slower. I found myself – perhaps in both senses – in the White Cube gallery looking at three huge rectangular wooden beams suspended, seemingly motionless, in a large empty space. Normally, I would dismiss such conceptual art as shallow and not worth spending much time with. But I stopped and looked and took in the relationship of each beam to the other, how that relationship shifted as I moved, and how one pendant beam might move slightly, seemingly independent of the other or of me. I peered into their hollowed-out centres through to the other side. The silence of the gallery encouraged reflection: how relationships shift over time, often imperceptibly and in quite undramatic ways. I learnt that sometimes my own angle of vision appeared to effect change but how too movement and change were not always, and did not need to be, in my control, that re-shaping and re-balancing came about not as a result of my willing them so but from forces and directions that asked only that I paid heed.

Maggie

PS

Having regaled my husband with some of the day’s events, in particular the line ‘O taste and see’ , he reminded me of Denise Levertov’s poem of the same name. The next day being International Women’s Day, I read it to a small gathering at St James’s. It sums up Street Wisdom rather well, I think.

O Taste and See

The world is
not with us enough
O taste and see

the subway Bible poster said,
meaning The Lord, meaning
if anything all that lives
to the imagination’s tongue,

grief, mercy, language,
tangerine, weather, to
breathe them, bite,
savor, chew, swallow, transform

into our flesh our
deaths, crossing the street, plum, quince,
living in the orchard and being

hungry, and plucking
the fruit.

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I was reminded of where I source much of my energy, that I’m an adventurer, how we dis-empower ourselves by comparing ourselves to others (a common conclusion in our mini group) and the types of parameters that bring out my best. Perfect timing.

Clare Haynes

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Bet you thought the statue in Piccadilly Circus was called Eros.  But you’d be wrong.

That’s just one of the many, many surprises uncovered when a group from the nearby St James’ Chuch set out for some serious wandering on their first Street Wisdom.   I understand most churches celebrate Lent in a traditional, rather sombre way.  But St James isn’t most churches.  And this is clear the moment you arrive to find the courtyard bustling with market traders, an espresso bar buzzing with customers and a pews dotted with snoozing rough sleepers comfortably catching up on missed sleep.  And Lucy Winkett, who organised the Street Wisdom, isn’t the normal vicar.   Her approach to Lent – and life – is anything but trad.  Which is how she and her colleagues came up with the idea of  “Loitering within Lent”, a series of experiences designed to make people reflect on life from different perspectives.   When she heard about Street Wisdom, she felt iy would fit in perfectly – and she was right.

I didnt notice till half way through the Tune Your Senses phase, what the sign next to us was saying…

With someone ‘up there’ providing gorgeous pre-spring weather and a post-card perfect setting,  the event was a rich and rewarding experience not just for the participants but also for Jo and I.   We learned about how even an ugly strip of torn black plastic, or the scent of lavender or some gently moving planks of wood can spark off a revelatory insight.   We were touched the youthful appetite to learn within some more ‘senior citizens’ and by the age-old wisdom in some Generation Y-ers.  Our erudite participants introduced us to a great quote by Rilke and we heard the word ‘panoply’ used in ordinary conversation.   We met Joey the dog.  And learned the real name of that statue we thought we knew so well.     Turns out it’s not Eros but the Angel of Christian Charity.   Amazing what you learn when you really look!

Judging by this plaque on St James’ back door,
we are not the first people to have had the idea that
wisdom is everywhere when you really look around you

If you took part and want to add your own comments, please do so below.   Thanks for inviting us!

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It was a wonderful way to kick off the city’s first (but surely not last) Street Wisdom.   People were asking questions about personal life, career, new work directions, next steps.   And answers – as ever – were in rich supply.  Two participants even bumped into Sweden’s leading actor.  So it was a celebrity event too!

If you were one of those taking part, please add your comments below.   Tack!

Messages from aliens spotted on by Thomas:   I have pretzels and box wine. Take me to your artistic leader.

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Converted a midday, cabin-fever inspired walk on a Washington DC snow day into a deep thought solo Street Wisdom session.
When all meetings were cancelled. Found myself working solo from my hotel room. Tempted to stay connected to my screen all day I realized I needed to get and stretch. I also felt a day inside in DC would be a waste. Why not get outside and at least observe the monuments and White House under a thin coating of fluffy snow?

But instead of wandering aimlessly, I thought about using the skills learned during a November Chicago Street Wisdom session.
I found myself asking deep business-related questions, and finding answers.

I’m a Green Buildings and Sustainability program advisor responsible for putting research into practice by those who build and buy green. Too often we create resources for our target audience without connecting well. Why not? How could we better think like the professionals we wish to reach? How can we speak their language and link our informative, free and impactful resources ( see https://sftool.gov) to questions they care about?

As I strolled around d the White House I began to notice the signs noting the organizations occupying offices nearest the White House– AFL-CIO Union, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, The Veterans Administration– disparate organizations for sure, United by a common geography. I found myself thinking how I would pitch Green Building differently to a Union, or a small business or a Federal health-based agency, all based on the literal signs around me.
Answers right in front of me.

Michael Bloom

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A magnificently crisp winter’s day drew a small, diverse, but perfectly formed band of adventurers to London’s Covent Garden. As the morning mist evaporated and the city woke slowly around us, we began our search for answers – but our wanderings would lead us around unexpected corners of both our minds and the city we thought we knew.

Shaking sleepy Sunday heads, we were soon looking up, down and all around at the buildings, street life and shop fronts of this ancient part of one of the world’s great metropolises. Many of us were familiar with this well trodden tourist zone, having rushed through it thousands of times on our way to other destinations, but there were secrets lurking at its heart.

As our volunteer Street Leader, David Micklem, helped us to tune up, slow down and observe the world around us, a few in our group stumbled upon a hidden churchyard created in 1633. The peace and tranquillity found in its garden were ethereal in the midst of such a dense and busy area. A garden of snowdrops looked upon benches dedicated to those who had passed on and were much missed. It made me think a little about how I might like to be remembered one day and began a playful couple of hours as I tried to answer my question for the day: ‘How can I be a better, truer version of myself?’

The cobblestones are steeped in a million stories here and slowing…right…down gave the opportunity to be enmeshed with the dramas playing out all around us while sensing the history of lives that had gone before. Little moments that normally flit by came clearly into frame: the older couple holding hands, a red haired girl looking lost and despondent, the homeless man folding his clothes under a portico. It takes you out of your own head and into a zone where you’re much more aware of human interactions.

The Street is a wise and often capricious muse. I occasionally laughed softly to myself as I wandered the roads and alleyways of central London and answers appeared in the most unlikely of places. A maze laid out in a courtyard lured me into its dead ends until I finally found my way to the centre. A metaphor perhaps to keep trying, never give up. Above me, inscribed over a doorway, were the words ‘Que sara sara’ (What Will Be Will Be).

The answer to my question came from a sign propped up in a bookstore window. It was a quote from a new fiction novel: “You can be whatever you want, but you will always be yourself”. The shop assistant approached me and we had an interesting conversation about the book, which he had read. It got me thinking about the way we outwardly portray ourselves as opposed to our inner voices and convictions. Unhappiness appears when the gap between those two things is at its greatest and reconciling them is the key.

As I walked back to meet our group again, a holographic photo of Marilyn Monroe mouthed the word ‘Wow!’ at me and made me laugh again. Street Wisdom is nothing if not playful, joyful and unexpected. There were plenty of revelations to share amongst the 10 of us ranging from gentle insights and appreciation of the headspace to direct answers that hit some participants right between the eyes. For me, the messages from the street are always loud and clear – we just need to be ready to hear them.

Melinda

Photos courtesy of Ashley Jones

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