Dying/broken/forgiven.... now I begin

re-born: 3-09-80
born again\found: 14-04-08

learning, yielding......

Hopes for the blog:
enact kindness
create moments of pause for disclosure, discovery, stillness

Monday, March 13, 2017

O (p) press I on

You are sitting at a desk-maybe your desk
Or a table-maybe your table.
Place your hands flat on top
Push hard on the surface
Count to ten
Do it again
Count to ten
Do it again
Are you alone?
Place one hand and then the other on the surface, alternating
As if you are walking on your hands
As if your hands are walking
Make no noise
Do it ten times
Do it again
Are you alone?
 Don’t compromise force for speed
Keep the pressure on…..
Are you alone?
Find another person
Do this side by side
Two hands
Then one at a time.
Now…. About this other person…..

Sit or stand face to face
Place hands against each other’s hands, palm to palm
Push into each other
Two hands, same time
Count to ten
Walking hands, alternating, against each other’s palms
Make no noise
Do it ten times
Practice pushing and yielding against each other
Only the hands
Make no noise
Do it ten times
Find another set of partners
Now you are four
Find a space in the centre of a room
Or go outside, find any open space
Imagine a giant box with a lid on a hinge….
It hangs open
It is your task to push it closed
Approach it as a group
Plan your timing
Gather round….
Open your hands
Push together
Push as if you were actually doing this work
Get under it, push, push
Push it up, now over
Now push it shut
One last push to be sure

Find a place / time to reflect on this
On pushing, pressing
Alone, with another, with a group
Was it exhausting? Exhilarating?
Is it something that becomes habit the more you do it?
Invisible in its familiarity?
It is something that makes its presence felt
Thrumming beneath the surface
Or off to the side?
Does the rhythm get into your blood?
Can you walk away because it left no impression?
(how)(what) Do you forget?
(how)(what) Do you remember?

That’s the question.


  1. My immediate thought was that this could be the lyrics for a Talking Heads song :)
    You may ask yourself...
    strange and dislocat(ed)ing

  2. Hey, Garth--thanks for the comment; wow....Talking Heads, I am flattered!
    It is a script for a movement strategy I use in my teaching to get learners involved in FEELING the mundane activities that they seem to disregard in their busy disembodied lives....
    glad you liked!!