Tag Archives: Linda Stone

Jan24

the attic, the basement

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Photo:  Pam White

Teaching often brings me into a state of heightened awareness and vigilance for sources and new connections.  I was talking to Pam this morning about how setting up the “Books I Love” page on my site has done this as well.  The idea to post my reading list came from Linda Stone’s site.  I love the way that resources can be passed and shared digitally and physically.

So I am culling, diving into what is old, what is new, what is still exciting. (By the time I finish, all the books will be linked).  I feel as if I have been visiting the attic and the basement of my mind, my library, my study.  The attic is a place of storage and the basement holds a different kind of energy.  I was thinking about the body and the chakras, and the relationship of the supportive holding of the basement to the lighter storeroom of the attic.

When we moved into this house, the attic was what it was originally when it was built in 1790.  Old curved chestnut beams and low ceilings.  The previous owner had put in skylights, and we insulated under the eaves and put in lights.  At first it was a playroom for the kids and held their treasures plus out-of-season clothes.  Now they are in college but the remains of their play is still there:  shelves of children’s books they elected to keep, toys and dolls they have not yet surrendered.  The basement is an old stone cave, and holds the workings of the house.

I like feeling the relationship between the two:  what sits below and above – the roots and the branches –  and feeling the relationship of all of that to my own body.  Because the body is also an archive:  a breathing reservoir of thought and movement, earth and air, above and below.

How are you feeling all (any) of that?

 

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Jan22

attention

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The other day I received a post from Gwen Bell who had a link to a video of Linda Stone talking about Continuous Partial Attention.  I am including it here because I think it well worth a listen.

I have been paying attention to attention for a while – say thirty years.  It is a big part of how I approach performance work, movement, writing, my horses and dogs, my kids and myself.  I am interested in the fluctuations of attention, and a big part of Breaking into Blossom is about that practice – how and when and why we attend.

Something wonderful that I discovered on Linda Stone’s web is a list of books that she likes.  The one I am reading and loving right how is Exuberant Animal: The Power of Health, Play and Joyful Movement by Frank Forencich.  He talks about how we have become a hyper-visual and hypo-tactile culture. And even beyond that, how we have narrowed our visual fields to exclude the peripheral.

This morning when I was shooting outside in the snow (yes, I had my pajamas on), I noticed that I have trained myself to scan peripherally within the frame before I shoot.  I am a complete novice photographer, so this was radical and exciting.  I also noticed that as I was walking, consciously widening my visual field seemed to deepen breathing and expand joy.