witness the sit-ness
Sometimes it's nice to just sit.
This reminds me of a poster in the bathroom of my friend Paul Leahy's house, when I was growing up. The quote said "sometimes I just sit and think, sometimes I just sit." The poster used to set me off thinking about what it really meant. Sitting on the toilet? Why would you want to do it? What's the point behind the text?
Lately I've been doing regular sit spots again. In case you don't know, sit spots involve going out and sitting and 'doing nothing', in the natural world, for a chunk of time, without looking at a clock or phone. Could be 10 minutes, could be hours. I haven't done many since my son was born. I'm not blaming the poor little lad for their disappearance, because what I've been focusing on with him feels immeasurably more personal and rewarding (did I mention exhausting, too?). Reconnecting with the personal feeling of relationship is what I need and when it comes to the natural world - I want to approach the time I devote to appreciating what's in front of me slowly, and with a sense of letting go.
Sometimes a sit spot is a 'sit and think' event - a busy mind can easily take over. These times can be a struggle, wanting it to be more peaceful or different in some way. But that's just me trying to eat soup with a fork or swim on the sand (that could be fun to try, actually!). It feels a bit like the weather. Some days cloudy, some rainy, some clear. It's often unpredictable for me, this ability to be in the moment, so I take it when it comes, without question, without forcing, embracing it with my whole body if I remember.
When it's a 'just sit' sit spot there's a definite otherness to it. Perhaps there's the element of surprise because it's a bit like a happy accident, just sitting then becomes a thing of beauty, a place of simplicity, where a single, reflective thought might last the entire time or my body fills up to the brim with the flow of a stream.
Life is never meant to be a certain way. Things are unpredictable for a reason - to keep us growing. The trees know it, the hills know it. We cycle like the weather, shift like the seasons and flex like the surface of the sea.
There's no escaping the nature we are.