Rest and Reflect Time Again, Day 20

Take today off, rest, and reflect.  What has the past 20 days taught you?  Be thankful.

Your "not" plant, Day 19

When we look at things and apply names to them it starts to drive and filter are perceptions very rapidly.  Sometimes we have to use our eyes and minds differently to only see form or color.  To observe without mounds of interpretation we have to suspend our rational categories.  Artists learn to see this way.  They learn to forget "plant" or "tree" and just see shape, shades, areas, and colors.  Today, I want you to invert your brain a bit to reawaken you to form.  Imagine for a moment that all that is solid is space and all that is space is solid.  Look at your plant in this way.  Think of it as a space, as a gap and all else around it is solid.  What is its space?  It has no color?  It's just space.   All that surrounds is solid?  What is that solid's shape?  What has been carved away from it by your plant?  

Thinking about the world in this way is a bit disorienting at first. However, if you push through to a place where you feel that what is solid is space and what is space is solid, then your sense of form will radically shift.  You will see and sense form for the sake of form.  Your ability to hold objects in your imagination will become greatly enhanced if you do this regularly.

The Nose Knows, Day 18

You have explored your plant with touch, sight and imagination.  Today, get a sense of your plant's particular aroma.  Do different parts of the plant smell differently or more intensely?  How close do you have to be to smell your plant?  Play with getting downwind or upwind of it?  Could you find this plant using only your sense of smell?  Does the smell remind you of any other aroma?  Would you confuse it with another plant?  Smell a few plants near by.  How is your plant's smell unique?  Try to put some words to the smell?  If you were to call the smell a color what color would it be?

Metaphor, Day 17

I was taking a tracking course one time and small groups were taking turns reporting about their particular area of woods they had mapped.  One person in the group would be asked to stand up and report on some specific aspect of there area, such as, "tell us about trails and runs" in your area or "who are the animals in your area and what are they doing there?"  We went through about four or five rounds of questions that you might expect with each round getting a bit more difficult for us to answer.  Then we got down to what was going to be our last round and I was asked by the instructor what the metaphor of our land was.  The metaphor?  I wasn't really sure how to respond.  This was past my edge.  I tried answering, but was really getting at the question and was asked once again, what was the metaphor of our land.  I still didn't know how to answer.  After some fumbling words the instructor let me off the hook and said, "I really didn't expect you to be able to answer that." but he wanted us thinking about it.

Whether you can answer it or not, I want you to think about what the metaphor of your plant is.  Symbolically what does your plant represent or mean right now?  Let me give you an example of the type of thing I mean.  I had a sit spot during a course once that was up in a large forked tree.  It was a time in my life when I was trying to understand how my wilderness studies and my faith studies related to one another.  I had two different communities because of these studies.  They seemed at times, if not unrelated, even antagonistic toward one another.  Over the course of the week, I came to realize that my sense of separation of these two things was really artificial and mostly in me.  It was a perception and and not a reality.  My tree became the catalyst for this awareness.  I realized that when I was sitting in the tree, if I hyper-focused on either branch of the fork, then it looked like its own tree.  However, if I drew back and looked at the bigger picture I realized they were parts of the same thing.  It was so symbolic to what I was experiencing and it helped me integrate my understanding of these different yet same aspects of my life.

So, what about your plant?  May be it is not coincidental that you were led to that particular plant.  Perhaps, its not coincidental that I am asking you to consider how it may be a metaphor of something for you.  To get at the metaphor of your plant I am going to ask you to do the following.  

1) Think about your life right now.  What is something tugging at your attention?  What is an issue that is quietly or maybe not so quietly tugging at your thoughts?  Wrap your mind around this?  You can even do this as your just driving to work or taking a shower or something.  It doesn't necessarily have to be at your plant.

2)  With whatever you identified, go hang out near your plant and take a good look at it.  How does your plant symbolize  or emulate this issue on your mind?  May be your plant has been terribly wounded in the past but has recovered and is stronger for it and you have are in a similar state.  May be your plant is going through a terrible growth.  Or, struggling to reach for life.  Or, full of lots of green but showing no signs of fruit.  You get the idea, how is your plant a metaphor right now for you personally.

3)  If something meaningful comes to mind, then you have received a gift.  Be thankful for your gift.  Express your thanks for it.

Caretake, Day 16

Be kind to your plant today.  Think about it's needs and then do something about it.  Maybe your plant needs some pruning.  Maybe it needs to be fed or watered.  May be it needs some mulch around it so that it holds water better.   Perhaps, you could weed around it and open up some space at its base.  Or may be it needs some neighboring plants trimmed back a bit.  Perhaps, there is a diseased place on the plant that needs attention.  What could you do to help your plant?  Fertilize it?  Remove pests?  Figure how you can benefit your plant today and then do so.

Look into the Future, Day 15

You have considered your plant's past, but what about its future.  What's going to happen to your plant, as the seasons progresses...as years progress?  How would you anticipate the landscape changing and what will it mean for your plant.  How long might you expect it to live and where will its children and grandchildren be?  Give your plant a good look and try to imagine how much larger it will be in the near future.  Do you have any idea if it will have fruits or berries?  Who might eat those fruits and berries?  What will your plant need between now and then?  Once again, don't be worried about being right or wrong.  Don't feel the need to go look these things up.  Just look at your plant and project with your imagination what the future might be based upon what you see and know now.  Have fun.

Compare and Contrast, Day 14

Find a plant nearby that is somewhat similar to your plant or even the same species. Take time to look at this other plant. What similarities and differences do you notice? Try to identify at least 15 differences. Consider size, structure, coloration, etc.

Sabbath Time Again, Day 13

Wow! Has it been a week already? Take a break today and give thanks. What have you learned and experienced over the course of a week? Take a few minutes today to reflect and write down some of your thoughts, feelings, and insights. Once you have, express thanks for the lessons you have learned.

Night Call, Day 12

If you haven't visited your plant at night, do so. Grab a flashlight and explore your plant in the dark. You are very likely to find a whole cadre of insects at work that you don't see in the day. Take a moment while you are out there and absorb the feel of night. Does your plant look different? Have flowers closed up? Have leaves or stems moved? What is your plant doing and experiencing at night?

Recall and Draw, Day 11

You have looked very intently at your plant through several lenses.  You have viewed it through a magnifying glass and from a distance.  You have searched for mysteries and practiced holding it from varying angles in your mind's eye.  It should be starting to imprint on you mind well enough that you can recall or reconstruct features of the plant.  Without going to your plant, try to draw the overall shape of the plant.  An outline or rough structural sketch will do.  Try to remember and draw a leaf, flower, scar, or other particular feature of the plant.  Just draw as much as you can from your memory.   Once you have your sketches complete, bring them out to your plant and compare.  If you made a little notebook like I did, then you may want to sketch in it.  Don't get all stuck in your head around the idea of not being able to draw.  Just do the best you can to capture as many images from your memory as possible.  This exercise will really sharpen your focus and recall.

Holding Your Plant in Your Mind, Day 10

Today's exercise is one of my favorite games I play.  I use it to hone my ability to hold an accurate image of something in my mind.  Go out and look at your plant for a couple of minutes and then close your eyes and hold the image as long as you can.  Then reopen and look at it again, may be from a slightly different angle repeating the process of look and hold.  Here is where the real fun begins.  Once again, look at the plant, get the image fixed in your mind and this time reach out and try to touch a specific feature of the plant with your eyes closed based upon the picture in your head.  How well can you navigate with your hands around your plant using your mental image?  

Gradually increase the challenge.  For example, walk around to the other side of the plant and try to reach over or around it and touch a specific feature with your eyes closed.  Or, walk a short distance away from your plant, view the plant, close your eyes, hold the image and try to walk toward and touch a specific point or points on the plant.  I play this game in my home a lot.  I will walk into a room and pick out an object somewhere in the room that I am going to try to navigate toward and touch or pick it up with my eyes closed.  One key to this is taking a few minutes to practice holding the image in your mind as long as you can.  Picture your hand actually reaching toward it.  Have fun and play with this.  

You can do this game anywhere anytime (okay, except for perhaps a moving car when you are driving).  Sometimes I just scatter objects on a table, glance at them and then try to pick items up in a sequence without looking.  If you think of a different variation to do with your plant, please let us know in a comment.

Have fun!

Digging into the Past, Day 9

Sit and look at your plant today and consider your plant's past. How long do you think it has been here. Are there any clues? How did it get here? Do you know what its seed looks like? What about its immediate past? i.e. just this year's growing season. What do you think your plant looked like this winter? What kind of growth has it gone through this Spring? If it's not flowering right now, do you think has already flowered? What evidence is there? What do you think this plant looked like flowering? I don't care whether you are right or wrong on this. You don't need to go looking this information up. Just consider what your plant's past has been and look for clues.

Mysteries, Mysteries, and more Mysteries, Day 8

Go find some mysteries about your plant. Explore your plant and look for some anomalies that raise questions. For example, my plant has some wounds and it has some pruning that has happened to it.  To the right is a picture of some old scarring.  The scar is in the middle of the limb bisecting the photo diagonally.  I don't know how well you can see it in the picture.  I wonder about the scars and pruning.  Are they all related or separate incidents?  I wonder what caused the wounds. Did the pruning happen because there were limbs so badly damaged they needed to be cut off? Or was the pruning simply ornamental? The wounds look like bad scrapes healed over. Did something strike the plant, such as a falling limb? If so, from what tree? How old are these limbs? Do they tell me something about the history of this plant's environment? For example, when a bad ice storm occurred. Do these wounds indicate the presence of a tree that once was there but isn't anymore?  If so, I don't see any tree near enough to be a likely suspect for the damage? Or was it some human influence like a piece of equipment striking the tree? These are just some of the questions I could think of.

Find your mystery. Raise questions. Create possible story lines. Play them out in your mind and see if they seem likely. Where does your theory break down? What is it dependent upon to be true? What are at least three or four other possible scenarios? What information or observation would help you solve this mystery? Just work with one mystery and take it as far as you feel you can go today.

Good Impressions, Day 7

The last few days have mostly been imaginative exercises.  Today, you are going to get hands-on.  You are going to make a leaf rubbing.  You will probably have to remove some leaves from  your plant.  Be sure and do so with a thankful mind, recognizing that your plant is loosing something so that you might gain something.  Matt and I went ahead and did this exercise so that we could share some pictures of our rubbings.   We'll use today to catch up on the neighborhood exercise from yesterday.

Here are some pictures of Matthew and I's rubbings.  The half sheet picture with the title "Reach" is actually a little notebook I made from one of my rubbings.  "Reach" is my plants name.  I folded over one of my rubbings and stapled some sheets in the middle.  I will be using this little notebook for some of the upcoming exercises.  You might want to consider doing the same.  I hope you are having fun.  Peace.

 

  

Plant Challenge Sabbath, Day 6

If you've done all of the previous exercises, you are well on your way to a very unique relationship with your plant.  Today is Sunday.  Take a break and give thanks.  What experiences and lessons have you gained so far?  Say thanks.  If you missed an exercise or two, you might want to pick one up today.  Whether you do or don't, take time to express both your thanks for your plant and your experiences.  That's all for today, but it's some of the most important time you'll spend.

Get to Know the Neighborhood, Day 5

Yesterday you got up close and personal with your plant.  Now let's zoom out.  Walk away from your plant ten or twenty feet.  Go as far as you can get from the plant and still see how it sits in the landscape with everything else.  Try to get a sense of how it fits.  Imagine a circle around your plant and think of that circle as a neighborhood.  Who lives nearby?  What are the traffic lanes around it?  What is its community?  Who does it interact with?  Does anybody come to visit?  Just be imaginative and consider its community.

If you haven't started recording any of your experiences you might want to.  Get a notebook and entitle it.  Use your plants name.  Maybe your title will be something like, "Life with Bob"  Your going to want a notebook because soon you will be writing and sketching about your plant for some of your exercises.  Those exercise though will be quite different than your Kamana work.  Your going to stay focused on imaginatively getting better acquainted with your plant and it's life.

Bug's Eye View, Day 4

Yesterday, you explored your plant looking for insects and insect sign.  I hope you had some luck.  Matt and I went out at 12:30 a.m. with a flashlight looking.  It was pretty cool.  We found a snail, two little centipedes, an itsy bitsy teeny weeny spider and it's web, a skeeter hanging out on a limb and one under a leaf, and a roly poly.  We also saw holes in the upper leaves that we think are some sort of insect damage, but don't know for sure.

Whether you found any or not, today take some time and imagine what it would be like to be an insect climb from the bottom of your plant to the top.  Look really closely at the plant.  In fact, grab a magnifying glass and get as close a look as you can.  Then imagine what it would be like to be an insect climbing.  Think about the scale.  Picture the enormity of your plant if you were only a few millimeters tall.  Imagine what it would be like to stand in the middle of a vast broad leaf the size of a parking lot and then suddenly the wind blows and you are cling to a vein as the whole thing sways chaotically.  Imagine coming around the stem and finding yourself face to face with a spider or some other massive creepy crawly multiples of your size.  Have fun in your amazing new world.

Find Creepy Crawly Buddies, Day 3

I asked Matt what he thought we should do today and he suggested exactly what I was thinkingso I took that as a slight synchronicity.  Here is his thought.  Explore your plant and see if you can find any bugs crawling around on it.  I would add look for signs of bugs as well i.e...chews, slime trails, little holes, old wounds, galls, etc.  Look around the base for bugs that hang out near it.  If you find any watch them for awhile and see what they do on or near the plant.  What role does your plant play in the life of the insect and vice versa.  Don't over think it though.  Have fun looking for your creepy crawlies.  

Peace, 

John

Shake Hands, Day 2

I hope finding your plant went well.  I actually let my kids help me pick my plant.  We all happen to be hanging out in the backyard, so I told them,  "I need to find a plant to get to observe and get to know with my ska buddies.  Do you guys want to help me pick it out?" They were game, so I said, "Which one do think?...  No don't think which one feels right?"  It was awesome, Matt, my twelve  year old.  Turned about very slowly and adjust his body like he was tuning in and then pointed to a bushy tree and said, "That one."  Then we debated a bit about it or the plant behind it.  What I loved most was once we decided for sure on the little tree, he said, "Okay, start talking to it."  I love the spirit kid's bring to this.

Okay, enough about  yesterday.  You have met your tree and know it's name.  (Not what kind of tree it is, some personal name you came up with.)  My tree's name is "Laboa."  It's Hebrew for "reach."  Because it looks like something elegantly reaching up to God and reach can also mean to succeed in communicating to something.  Now that you have met and know its name.  Take a moment today say hello and then and shake it's hand.  Specifically, put a blindfold on and spend 5 minutes exploring your plant through the sense of touch.  Get to know its textures, how dense or supple it feels.  How do the trunk, stems, and twigs feel different from one another?  How do the leaves vary?  How do younger leaves feel different than older leaves?  What are edges and surfaces like?  Explore your plant today for at least five minutes blindfolded with your attention focused upon touch.

Blessings on The Plant Challenge, Day 2

Find and Name, Day 1

Use body radar and find a plant that you are going to get to know over the next two weeks.  Find one at your home so that you can see it everyday.  Once you have found your plant, name it.  I don't mean identifying it.  I mean, give it a name like Bob, Ann, Murphy or Percival.  You are done with day one.