Square Foot Observing
Have you ever watched a child stare endlessly at one particular spot - maybe the light dancing on the wall at bath time, or his own hand moving back and forth, back and forth, as he waves for the first time? Maybe you thought your child was 'just' stimming; maybe you feared there was nothing going on in his mind. Maybe you just wondered what he was thinking. Maybe you knew that he was observing and learning about his world; making observations that would serve him for the rest of his life. It took me years to see that my son's endlessly boring (to me, who couldn't take the time to join him) observations were in fact the foundation of his lifelong interest in physics. He was learning - and only because he wanted to! I think we all need to tap into that beautiful experience of explorative wonder. I've been thinking a lot lately about how we have had free-range exploration and wonder trained out of us by the education, social, and employment systems we live in, and how poor we are to have lost this innate learning ability. Observation is essential for learning, and it's time we get back in the rhythm of it. So I've come up with an exercise for all ages. Kids do it naturally. Some of us may need some encouragement. I'm going to call this exercise Square Foot Observing.Yes this is a play on square foot gardening, but it's also a form of meditation - a meditation that requires nothing more than a brief commitment. Say ten minutes, though you may be forgiven for getting so deeply engaged that you stay for hours.
Here's how it works:
Find a spot on the ground or near to it.
One square foot. That is all. It doesn't matter what is in it.
Lie down, so your eyes are a maximum distance of one foot from the spot you chose.
Make yourself comfortable. You can even bring a mat or a pillow if you need it.
Look.
Feel.
Smell.
Listen.
Experience.
That's it! Next time pick a different spot.
What you're doing:
You're giving yourself an opportunity to relax, and your mind an opportunity to focus and explore. In limiting your field of observation to one square foot you not only relieve yourself of the masses of overwhelming or distracting other experiences around you, but you also give yourself freedom to see more deeply. You give yourself an opportunity to notice things you may never have seen before, and there are such discoveries to be made anywhere, from a square foot of the most boring-looking piece of sidewalk to a square foot of laundry, to a square foot of lawn, to a square foot of forest floor or lake surface. What you are seeing may involve other life forms, but it may also involve interesting molecular structures, light play, soundscapes, or textures. Maybe the movement of the air or the perceived humidity is the thing. You can't know until you lie down and start your observation.Once you've been doing this for a while, and if you're not too much of a purist, you might want to bring along a little jeweler's scope to aid in your observations. These things can be quite inexpensive to buy, and can open you up to a whole new world of rarely-seen life and physical wonders.
All of the photos included here were taken by my son Taliesin, who has always taken time to observe deeply, sometimes with camera in hand.
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