| Dated: Feb. 13/00 |
Unity of London now has a men's group to allow the men some time to get together and to discuss spiritual and other matters in a male oriented atmosphere. Now we are meeting in the new church building. Last meeting was discussing a great video; "Men are From Mars, Women are From Venus"
In one of the previous meetings, Oct. 9th, we talked of our last weeks, then got involved in the problems that we were facing, and had a great meditation. While some of the people watched baseball, I had a chance to read Conversations With God. Got part of the book read.
On one recent meeting the agenda was to play badminton at a local tennis court [well its a little different, but, what the heck!] Previously, we also had a tennis court to ourselves, for the evening, and it was a lot of fun, actually. SO!! If you are out there in London, and want to join a men's group. COME! For pictures see this page Pictures for Men's Group - 1998.
On Sept. 25/98 we had a great meeting at Larry's place,
and we were outside slowly freezing as the temperature dropped. When
the light of the twilight was fading, we decided that we had had enough
of the low temp. and moved indoors to his living room. With coffee
in hand we proceeded to discuss the most interesting esoteric matters.
We ended somewhere around 9:30PM. Talk started around the idea of
what DO WE REALLY WANT in our lives. For often we just drift along
and never really fix in our heads, just exactly what it is that we truly
want to do or to be in our lives. And, that is OK! It is a
way of life [matter of fact, I (Bob Russell) do like that way - some of
the time, at least]. I think that was the best part of the evening,
as it can be important, if we are to craft our reality to our conscious
desires.
WE have had lots of meetings and one of the best ones was a wonderful camp out in a campsite about 30 or so minutes from London. This happened in Sept. 1997, I think.
NOW meets on the second and fourth Friday of each month @ 7:00 p.m. Call Larry Matier (659-8358) or Bob Russell (473-8802) for more information. For the fall and winter we shall be meeting at various locations.
On Mar. the 13th, we had a get together at the Allstate Office. We talked for while about various things and had some food and coffee. Then we decided to let each person talk of their week and the things that were bothering them. The leader then suggested that we have a meditation and that was fun. Bob Hisson, our leader, had prepared an interesting set of ideas for us to discuss. They had to deal with relationships, and how it is difficult for men, often to get into the emotions that women are more adept at. Bob handed out a couple pages, I think, [I only have one of them in front of me, now.]
Question #1:
Define intimate relationship. [What is an intimate relationship.]
I wrote:
This is an interaction between sentient beings where barriers to the
truth, to the true feelings of each are lowered, so that the other or each
other can actually undersand the other, or understand where the other is
coming from.
Each person there, of course, had their own definition, some longer,
many shorter.
So we talked about the concepts for a while.
Question #2:
How do you achieve an outstanding intimate relationship?
I wrote:
By actively listening to the other, by attempting to get inside the
other's mind, by walking in the other's shoes.
Then the discussion turned to how people interact, how originally it was thought that when a person marries, there would be you, me, and an area of shared though, perhaps called, us. However, it is this 'us' area [an area that can be looked at as an area where the circle that is 'me' and the circle that is 'you', overlap to form a overlap area. This is unfortunately the area where things are taken for granted, such as if I take out the garbage this week and next week, perhaps 'you' think I shall always be taking out the garbage.
The new concept is for the circles to be like bubbles or perhaps balloons, which have surface tension, and do not overlap, but instead, have a common surface, where they meet. Now we have a concept of empowerment. ake nothing for granted. As in the former example of taking out the garbage, you would ask if I wanted to do it, or I would just do it, because I liked to do it. So the thought was that you should be negotiating everything, and through this one gets respect, and the marriage prospers.
After some more ideas were talked about we adjourned.
- Robert Russell, webmaster.
Past Events:
On July 4th the men had a great time doing tennis.
Ok, my report on this camp out.
We gathered from various places at Larry Matier's home on the east side of London, at about 5:30PM. We left all unneeded cars at this location and used his van to make the 30 some min journey over to one of the other fellow's summer cottage in a lovely camp grounds. We arrived about 7PM and immediately set up the tent as it was even then beginning to get dark, as the trees around the campsite were very tall and creating quite a lot of shade.
When we had finished and when one of the other boys got to the site, we set to work with the corn roast. In this case we had soaked the corn in water for quite a while and then used a propane BBQ to cook them. I brought the paper plates and napkins while each of the others was responsible for some of the other supplies. We had a lovely campfire and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves telling stories and talking of life and various things. Later on we moved into the cabin for a while and watched a movie, "The Gods Must Be Crazy". By this time many of the guys were falling asleep so 3 of us went to bed in the cabin and the rest in the 2 tents. About this time the rains came and fortunately, they were not really too hard. In the morning when we got up the ground was not too wet and neither were the tents. We had a lovely breakfast of scrambled eggs, bacon, toast, and coffee. we packed up all the equipment and then went for a nice walk around the place to see just what it had to offer. Hundreds of lovely homes [summer] lots of kids and people of all ages. The sun was shinning and it got pretty hot by the time we left.
This was a very successful outing and I am sure that we shall see what we can do like it in the future.
The initial meeting for the men's support group took place on Feb. 02/97. There were a large number of men that seemed to be interested in becoming members. It was felt that we should start by holding meetings once a month. Monday was tentatively set as the day for the monthly meetings. It was decided that an agenda outlining the structure for each following monthly meeting should be established.
Possible Activities:
Neil Brimblecombe Bob Hisson Larry Matier Bernie Fitsmaurice
Andy Desilets and Henk Ketelaars were absent
Our next meeting is scheduled for 12:00PM on Sunday Feb. 16/97.
Our next meeting is scheduled following the service on Feb.23/97. If anyone is interested in further information, please contact any of the above people or attend the next meeting.
ALL MEN ARE WELCOME TO JOIN AS THIS IS YOUR SUPPORT GROUP.
Report on the Second Meeting held on Feb.16th, 1997.
It was decided that the meetings would be held on a Friday evening of every month. [See above for revised details.]
Bob Hisson will inquire with other Unity Centres for information pertaining to other men's support groups. Andy Desilets will check the Internet for information on men's groups. We will hold our first meeting on March 07, 1997. Andy will check on the availability of a bowling alley for our first meeting. Larry Matier will inquire through Margaret about a speaker for our first meeting.
We could also join in on another church's men's group night. It was decided to keep the meetings to a short duration.
The following were present:
| Neil Brimblecombe | 519-455-2245 |
| Andy Desilets | 519-686-4518 |
| Bob Hisson | 519-686-7245 |
| Larry Matier | 519-659-8358 |
ALL MEN ARE WELCOME TO JOIN AS THIS IS YOUR SUPPORT GROUP.
June 6/97 Today we had a nice discussion group, and then went out for pizza. WE needed to do some forward planning as to some of the events that we would create for us in the coming months. Henk handled the chairing of this meeting and it went very well.
It was decided that we would do a number of different activities: such as canoeing, sport's trip to see baseball, perhaps. Another person will handle astronomy, curling, videos. Another camping, horseback riding, putter golf. Well that gives you some of the ideas, that we considered.
June 20/97 Today, as usual there was a conflict with my astronomy meeting, so you know where my heart lies [YES, in the stars], so I was at that meeting, but the story of that is to be found perhaps in another location. The others though went to the golf course and had a great time.
Drop us a line! Page maintained by Robert Russell who can be reached at e-mail address [email protected].