Older, but no wiser

Its easy to get so wrapped up in things that we don't notice - and I mean really Notice - the world around us. And its not easy to break out of the treadmill of habituated thought patterns and become truly open to the sights, sounds, smells and feelings that surround us at all times.

Sometimes its useful to have some process to fall back on - a method by which you can draw your attention away from the tramlines of those habitual thoughts and spend some time in that landscape of the senses that usually we'd pass straight through.

Chris Corrigan has an intriguing post today about noticing space. One way I'll sometimes use to awaken awareness of space and form is to observe motion to reveal the structures and relationships in what I see. A tree, for example, in calm air has a certain form but that is hidden behind the outwardly simple appearance of a trunk surplanted by a leafy blob. Yet in the wind, as I look out of the office window across the Euston Road, the three-dimensional structure of the plane trees becomes clear - the single mass of leaves becomes a network of complex interrelated movement; branches sway in synchronism revealing the form beneath. Smoke curling from a cigarette reveals the invisible movement of the air. Watch people walking along the street - the way they move reveals perhaps something of the way they are feeling.

The idea of movement revealing structure goes further. Flexing an organisation through change reveals some of the hidden links that subvert the hierarchy. Flexing relationships reveals the strengths of the bonds. Changing your habits may help reveal what matters to you.

So the path of observing movement and change may begin at increasing awareness, but it leads on to learning.