Just listening, no cost, no strings attached!
What a great way to spend a Sunday morning!
Today David paired up with Matt Ball from The Humane Clinic (2017 Mental Health Nurse of the Year) down at Brighton Beach for some unconditional positive listening. At first people seemed a bit cautious (there's got to be a catch, right?) but before too long people started coming up and sharing their stories. We heard some amazing things, like:
* an 82 yo man who recently lost his wife after 62 years of marriage. He told us a story of being shot at as an 18 yo in Malaysia, and trying to save the lives of others in the unit
* an 80 yo woman who recently lost her fiancee after he took his own life, she gave a powerful story of resilience and how to stay positive
* a young theology student who was fascinated about why we were doing
* an 80-something yo man who wanted to tell us about making love to his wife that morning, and how he has hope in the Lord
There were a lot of people who didn't want to talk but just wanted to take our photo.
There were gifts too! A lady riding past on her bike stopped just to thank us and give a flower, and we didn't even talk to her! Another man sat in the car and watched us for a long time before he came over to give us chocolates and tell his story.
We did our best to uplift other people but I think Matt and I got the most out of it, walking away on a real high. We will both try to make it a regular occurrence. Please come and say hello.