I’m not afraid of the dark
Moving blindly, and finding a stone.
Part of Lithic Attunement Exercises
- Psychogeological drift
- Written in stone
- I’m not afraid of the dark
- To be a stone
- A pebble in my pocket
- Correspondence
The lovely puzzles, the enchanting beauty,
And the excruciating complexity
An intractability of actual organisms in real places.
Stephen Jay Gould
| Duration: 45 minutes |
| Location: Outdoors in “nature” |
Go somewhere that you would not consider urban.
Go to the forest. Go to a mountain. Go and find silence away from the city.
Consider doing this exercise blindfolded. A blindfold can elicit a humble contact with space, and erase a certain amount of shyness springing from performing a new movement.
Sit still. Blindfolded, if that feels okay.
Sit still until you can no longer stand the stillness. Then sit still for longer.
Once you have cleared your thoughts, you are ready. Turn up the volume on your senses.
Carefully, start to move. You may stand up, or move on all fours. Move slowly.
When you feel overwhelmed by the distance, sit again and be still. Settle down.
Focus. Focusing undulates a symphony of movement, concentration and exploration.
Repeat.
Repeat.
Trace your patch of the woods. Please don’t fall off the mountain.
Now, pause for a brief moment. Sit and take off your blindfold. Where have you landed? What do you see? Look around you and find a stone. Don’t move it, just observe it. Is it wedged into the ground? Is it lying next to a stick?
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