Hello,
My name is Laila and I have created an invitation for you.
I called it A Room You Know.
It is accessible as an audio score, or as a written score.
To take up the invitation you will need to steal 10 minutes of your day – any 10 minutes of your day – and you will need to choose a room in your home to follow the score in.
It doesn’t matter if the room is big or small, cluttered or spacious.
If you choose to explore the audio score, it will be good to avoid having to carry a device around with you if possible, and best also to listen to it without headphones.
Perhaps take your shoes off before you start.
I’ll meet you there!
I invite you to read this score in its entirety first of all. Then, perhaps, before moving away from the screen, read the first section once more.
From then on, return to the score as much or as little as you need, depending on what you remember of it, and on what feels useful in holding and feeding your experience.
1:
Begin from where you are.
Wherever you are is as good a place as any to begin. Whether you are sitting, or standing, whether you are on the move or still, whether inside of the room you will be moving in or outside.
Then from we are, can we go and stand, or sit, or lie down at the threshold of the room, in the door frame?
As much of us inside the room as out.
Take a moment to settle here.
This settling could need 20 seconds or 2 minutes, or more. Allow for whatever you need.
Once you have found a stillness, perhaps you notice the movement of your breathing in your body.
In and out of your body.
Can you trace the outline of the door frame with your finger tips?
2:
Now, enter the room and go for an exploration in it. Explore it for a few minutes as if it was a park, or botanical gardens perhaps.
How does the ground feel under foot as you walk?
What sounds reach your ears, sounds close by or distant?
Is the air cool? Or warm?
Noticing all of those things.
What can you smell as you explore the room? Anything?
What can you see, feel as you explore?
You could trace your fingers along a wall. Or a table. Or a bed spread. Or window frame.
You could find an object and hold it for a moment, feeling its weight. As you continue exploring, notice details.
Frames. Light and shadow. Cracks in the paint. Reflections. Textures. The sound of a car passing by.
The smell of coffee drifting in from the kitchen maybe?
3:
And now, in this well-known room, can you find a place you rarely stand, or sit, or lie in?
And take a moment to settle here.
This could need 20 seconds, or 2 minutes, or more. Allow for whatever you need.
And take in this new, or less familiar, perspective.
Perhaps you notice the movement of your breathing in your body. In and out of your body.
4:
When you are ready could you find one last place to be, in your room? A place where you could rest your back against something, or rest your head, or your legs. Find that place.
Take a moment to settle here.
This could need 20 seconds, or 2 minutes, or more.
Rest your back. Or your head. Or your legs.
And then notice the surfaces your body is in contact with.
Notice the structures you are in relationship to/with. Floor, walls, the table or the bed or the window frame, or the contact of the air and its movement. Moving. In and out of your body. And all the other structures also that support us, hold us: bones, skin. Just to name these. And all of them part of this room.
5:
When you are ready you can make your way back to the door of the room.
Finding the threshold once more.
As much of us outside as in.
And from here, from where we are, let’s move, which ever way, into our day.
