Photo by Jude Infantini on Unsplash
unpolished thoughts 6/16/2019
Maybe there is relationship between how well we know ourselves and how well we can know the world.
There are many things we could describe with words, that we could seem to capture in the net of our thoughts, but what is most decisive is what we feel, that which does not correspond to language.
We were not born with language – at least not the symbolic language that shapes our culture. We were born with the language of feeling. There was a time when sensation was our primary knowing.
Yesterday, I rested my hand on the trunk of a tree and gazed into the bark patchwork of its trunk – it’s skin.
Trees don’t seem to move, yet the connection between us created an unmistakable pull that drew me more to the left. Curious, I invited my gaze to draw me back to the right, but immediately sensed that I was in less harmony with this gigantic and gentle organism.
A tree’s roots descend unfathomably deeper than human symbols, yet because a tree expresses shapes, I found my eyes drawn towards certain patterns that seemed to speak to me.
Just as children love to find fluffy animals floating in a blue sky overhead, I began to discover faces, flowers, and other forms.
An eye seemed to peer down at me from slightly above, and when I raised my eyes to meet its gaze, I saw a rippling centipede moving across the iris, moving with a serenity that knew nothing of the anxiety of human culture.
This messianic creature spoke to me in that wordless way, in the language of presence.
We humans can speak that language too, but sometimes we forget. But why should we now be any less awed by the mystery of being alive than the moment when we entered this world, when wonder was all we knew?
There is a pathway that can take us back to that place, even as it takes us forward.
We can relearn and remember that language which came before our native tongue, the language of sensation.
Do you feel connected to the world around you? Do you want to feel more or feel less?
Learn to feel more, and experience more presence and connection in your life in my next online Feldenkrais program, Connecting Insides & Outsides, starting July 1.