Boy Group | Communication Strategies | Wk 2

Awareness leads to connection. In our second session of “Communication Strategies,” we exercised our “noticing muscles” and talked about how we can use new information to make new friends and deepen our existing relationships.

The poem “This Moment” by Eavan Boland is a careful description of a neighborhood at dusk. We are invited to notice “the stars and moths. And rinds slanting around fruit.” But we are also asked to make connections and to fill in the story. “Things are getting ready to happen out of sight,” the poet tells us. We asked the boys to imagine these things and to think of themselves as detectives.

The notebook is a useful tool for a detective and we encouraged the boys to study the group and write down their observations. We asked them to notice ten things they had in common with other people in the group and to think about how we can use these commonalities to connect. The boys liked writing in their journals about all the ways they felt they had things in common and then breaking off into dyads to "practice" making connections by asking each other questions, listening and following up with further conversations.

We discussed the difficulty of making friends and how responding to people with curiosity can open ourselves up to making new connections with those around us – especially when it can be hard.

During the closing circle, several boys talked about wanting to have more courage with reaching out to other people, a sentiment shared by the larger group. Sometimes it just takes a little courage! Next week, we’ll be talking more about connection and how we can engage in conversations. For homework, we’ve asked the boys to map out how they are connected to the others in the group and identify what specifically creates this connection.

Thank you again for sending us your boys. I see the courage in each of them as they speak up and out in the group and am enjoying these moments of connection that we share.

Until next time,

Mike Rindge

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