Haecceity
Hi my name is Mark.
I live in Newcastle upon Tyne and love sharing my skills with those who find them useful.
My interests include human behaviour, psychology, community development, environmentalism, Yoga and Taoism.
I have always had an inquisitive mind and a taste for the more abstract, metaphysical fringes of life, art, music and ideas. This has driven my tendency to enquire and learn and has led me down the road less travelled too.
I trained as a hairdresser when I left school at 16 and moved from Manchester where I grew up, to London when I was 17 working as a stylist in the west end when it was still a great place to be a radical creative.
That was a real buzz for a curious, flamboyant and fashion obsessed young guy looking for excitement and others who shared my passion and hunger for a colourful life.
Having met a wonderful woman from Heaton, Newcastle, I moved here in 1980 and we raised four daughters together who are all now grown up and doing their own thing.
In 1993 I decided I wanted to develop my interest is environmental science so studied for a degree at Newcastle University. This led to research in soil science and found me working in Bangladesh and Greece.
Following a period of lab based research work, I realised that the academic life was not for me and spent a couple of years working with friends helping them develop their ideas and business skills.
I have always worked/volunteered in my own community in any role required. I moved into working in the third sector naturally as I kept bumping into community workers who appreciated my business skills and my knowledge of team building. I have worked with charities, community groups, co-ops and informal communities for many years.
I have had so many valuable opportunities to work with a wide range of imaginative and caring people here, both as mentors, colleagues and clients.
The consistent things in my life are my family, my faith in humans to grow and develop, my practice in the Tao which includes daily yoga and meditation, my love of writing and sharing ideas with other curious and creative types.
My core belief that life is best when lived with awareness, filled with a love... of nature, ourselves and each other.
I am also a bloke in his sixties who goes through the shared human tendencies to learn and fail and learn again yet still enjoy the challenges and opportunities that life keeps delivering.
