David Pearl, Author at Street Wisdom

Home from Home in Haryana

Posted on 20.03.1702.09.21 by David Pearl

I was expecting Street Wisdom in a village outside Delhi to be extraordinary. But I am a stranger, looking at India though an outsider’s eyes. It’s hard not see even the most mundane Indian street as cinematic and exotic. But what about the wonderful group of professional coaches and facilitators I was introducing to the experience for the first time? They are from India. Would they find their own backyard so magical?

I certainly felt like a stranger, leading the tune up phase in front of some lock up garages on the roadside at Karnki. A temple on the left, cars and trucks beeping madly and a cow ambling past. (Thanks to you Sriram and Abhi for helping me with the facilitation. You’re natural street wizards!)

It turned out my Indian colleagues also felt like outsiders. This is a poor area where the challenges of daily life are hard to imagine. Truly, I think we all felt like strangers. And what made the experience extraordinary to so many was how welcome the residents, shopkeepers and street sweepers made everyone feel. In the sharing, participants swapped stories of how initial reserve (“are you from the government?…are you doing a survey?”) gave way to welcome, generosity and genuine conversations. They sat us down, gave us chai, invited us into their shops and dwellings. Curiosity begets curiosity it seems.

Everyone had their own answers to their personal questions, of course, but there was a shared theme of gratitude for the many small ways the locals had made us feel at home. There was also a shared desire to connect like this with our fellow humans more often.

And for me? I didn’t officially go on Street Wisdom. But it had come to me. Remember those garages where I chose – quite by chance – to do the tune up? While I was standing there, waiting for the explorers to return, an old man appeared. He rolled a rickety office chair up to me and gestured for me to sit. I smiled and mimed ‘no thank you’, thinking it would be an imposition. He mimed “a cup of chai?”. Again, I did the polite thing, the Englishman not wanting to outstay my welcome. He looked directly into my eyes for a long time, smiled and bowed. Before he cycled off with his rickshaw piled high with rice bags, he said something incomprehensible to Abdi in the local dialect. I did pick up one word – raj – which didn’t make me feel any more at home. Colonial memories, I thought. Ouch.

But it wasn’t until we returned to the hotel for the Sharing that I understood. The old man had told Abhi that centuries ago, in a previous life, the tall man with the umbrella (me) had been the king – the Raja – of this district. That’s why he was offering me a throne and some refreshment. The Raja had returned and he wanted to welcome me home. A profound quiet settled on the room. I was lost for words.

So, not such a stranger after all…

Mindfulness at Walk

Posted on 20.01.17 by David Pearl

Mindfulness at Work are one of the pioneering companies bringing Mindfulness into the workplace in a way that everyone can easily connect with and learn from. Louise Cox Chester, MAW’s irrepressibly passionate founder and CEO has been a fan of Street Wisdom from the very start. In fact, I think she was the first person to describe what we do as applied mindfulness. Who knew?

As stress, complexity and volatility continue to grow, so does the Business world’s need for clear thinking, awareness and self-direction. And our two ventures will be collaborating more in future to answer this call. So Louise thought it would be useful (and generous) to give Mindfulness at Work’s growing tribe of coaches and trainers a chance to experience street wisdom first hand.

Personally, it was a real joy to be working with them in and around St James’s Park. Freezing cold, but a joy nonetheless. Mindfulness meets wanderful-ness.

What questions did these mindful adventure seekers ask? And what answers did they get? That’s really for them to say. So, if you were there, please leave your comments below.

Indelible Mark

Posted on 06.11.16 by David Pearl

I didn’t know Mark Adams for very long. Not in earth years anyway. Which is suprising, when I look back at the impact he had on me and on Street Wisdom.

He bounded into my life in 2013 like the human development ‘tigger’ that he was, brimming with enthusiasm for Street Wisdom and its potential. It was his idea to start the Street Wizards program. And it was his irrepressible energy that got it going.

He was the last person you’d expect to get ill. But I’ll never forget how he broke the news to me. “I’m going to love this cancer like everything else in my life.” Not just courageous. Extraordinarily expansive.

Mark was all about love. For his life, his adored wife and daughter, for mindfulness, marketing and yes, he really did love Street Wisdom. When he gave up all other work he still kept attention on the Wizard Program and how it was developing.

He bounced out of this life on 15th October as his wife Kerry put it “passing on to the exciting stuff beyond”. He was driven to his funeral in his own camper van and Kerry asked all his friends to wear yellow – a colour representing gold, optimism, enlightenment, creativity and sunshine. Also – and you can hear him laughing about this – it was the colour he went when his original diagnosis knocked his liver off balance. How’s that for embracing everything in life?

I was in Israel that day and at the exact time of his ceremony my daughter and I looked out of the car to see this… And what suddenly came on the car radio?

Mark is clearly having fun up there!

He wouldn’t want us to be sad so we’ll do our best. Wander well, my friend. We didn’t know you for very long. But we’ll never forget you.

If you’d like to leave your own thoughts about the impression Mark left on you, you’re welcome to below. And if you wanted to support a charity Mark cared about – and which cared for him – it’s Forca Against Cancer.

Inspiring Times

Posted on 29.10.16 by David Pearl

Freelance journalist Rachel Carlyle (@Rachel_Carlyle) was thinking about the next step in her career when curiosity brought her to a Street Wisdom on London’s SouthBank. You can take a look here at the article she wrote about her experience in The Times. Find out what she learned about wanting it all and being human from seagulls, stickers and a man hunting for treasure with a metal detector.

FLO state…

Posted on 27.10.1602.09.21 by David Pearl

Florentin is a neighbourhood of Tel Aviv that the average tourist might overlook. But this bustling, hip, multi-cultural quarter – a magnet for new arrivals and refugees – turned out to be a delicious site for the city’s first ever night-time Street Wisdom. It was hosted by Jonah Fisher and the team at FLO a funky new co-working space for social innovators that’s all about creating community. Five minutes before we were due to start no one had arrived – hey, this is Israel! But just after 1900 FLO was buzzing with an international crowd of the curious including participants from Germany, Italy, Russia, Denmark and Australia.

Florentine really comes alive after dark. Street cafes, bars, bakeries making delicious kadayif, late night hair dressers, tattoo parlours even a Flamenco School… The street wisdom explorers set out into the warm night with a wonderfully diverse range of questions: how can I sell my corsets in Israel?…am I on the right path?…should I buy a car now?…how can I feel more safe?…where should I move to? They returned with tales to tell, insights to share, delightful synchronicities to report and answers to act on.

It was a real joy. My personal thanks to the FLO team and also to wizards Rei Dishon and Elsa Pearl (leading a group for the first time!). If you were there, please add your comments below and tell us what happened for you.

We’ll always have Paris

Posted on 22.09.16 by David Pearl

So street wisdom is back in Paris after more than 100 years. Let me explain.

In the mid-nineteenth century a group of French artists and thinkers started turning to the city streets – rather than rural nature – for inspiration. So began the Flâneur movement – from ‘flâner‘, to stroll. Balzac described flânerie as “the gastronomy of the eye” – all about savouring the urban landscape. Baudelaire describes how the flâneur’s “passion and his profession are to become one flesh with the crowd. Thus the lover of universal life enters into the crowd as though it were an immense reservoir of electrical energy.”

Sounds like he had experienced Street Wisdom!

We didn’t consciously decide to continue this tradition when we set up our venture 3 years ago. But during this Parisian event, leading a group of 25 fearless inspiration seekers through the streets of the City of Light, Mel and I both felt the ghosts of the Flâneurs looking down and wishing us ‘bon voyage’.

LUSH was a rush!

Posted on 11.09.16 by David Pearl

Lush is always thinking about the senses. Their shops are a riot of colour, an explosion of different scents, a playground of textures. They also think constantly about learning and how to inspire their thousands of people around the world develop and grow.

When Katie Nugent gathered Lush’s 50-strong international training team in London she asked us to create a Street Wisdom experience for them which would help inspire the inspirers. What could they learn from seeing their surroundings with new eyes, ears and – yes – noses? What ideas would our street-based, experiential learning experience spark in these training pros?

Well, I don’t want to gush, but Lush was a rush!

“The session was so much more than we expected” Katie told us afterwards. “It contributed not only to formation of plans for next steps in training but also to real connections between the group and a noticeable ‘recharging’ of individuals”.

Certainly, I can’t remember a richer, more productive or more enjoyable event. Emotional, too. Did it have something to do with the late summer sun bathing Oxford Street? Or the fact that 3 of the five groups were led by Lush’s own Street Wizards – Boo and Nina and Andrew? Or the general openness, enthusiasm and all-round wonderfulness of the participants? Probably all of the above.

Many of those taking part had powerful personal experiences – and if you are reading this, please leave us a comment or two below so we get a flavour of your own quests. Collectively, we harvested a basin (or even bath) full of new ideas for training in the business. So next time you are passing a Lush, keep your eyes, ears and noses alert. We think you will start sensing changes.

Google Summerfest

Posted on 05.09.16 by David Pearl

Summerfest turned out to be perfectly named. Even though it was the last day of August it felt like high summer in the Netherlands. And the annual ‘learn-a-thon’ that Google organises for their people here, felt like a real festival with participants customising their own day at the various experience tents. Street Wisdom was delighted to be taking part – I think we had the best looking tent too!. The only slight issue was – no streets. The festival was held 60km outside Amsterdam in a lovely but very rural setting. No problem for Google who magicked up a fleet of bicycles so we could pedal to the nearby town. And so the first Street Wisdom on two wheels began!

This picture shows us doing a tune up by a synchronous street sign which translates as “Situation Changing”. So true! If you participated and are reading this, please leave us a comment about your experience.

Meanwhile, I want to tell you about a wonderful stranger I met while I was leading the event. Sesay Alpha (picture below) had been observing watchfully from a bench and when the Googlers went off on their quest he introduced himself. A birthday accident in Sierra Leone many years before had severely damaged his spine. It awoke him to plight of other badly injured people in Africa and he helped set up AfricaSurgery.nl to find them the support they desperately need. But what about Sesay’s own health? Doctors told him he would never walk again but after a decade in a wheel chair he took a closer look at the drugs he was being prescribed, set them aside decided to try to walk. His first scary attempt took him to that bench. Now he walks 14km every day. It’s an inspiring story. And where did he research the drugs that were keeping him off his feet? Google, of course.