Food for thought

Embodied Reading / GRIEVING

By January 3, 2019 No Comments

Some thoughts on Embodied Reading

“Not to run from one thought to the next, but to give each one time to settle in the heart. Attention – concentration of the spirit in the heart. Vigilance – concentration of the will and the heart.  Sobriety – concentration of feeling in the heart.”  Theophane the Recluse

The Art of Words

“Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings. Resistance and change often begin in art. Very often in our art, the art of words.” Ursula LeGuin

“While words, of course, cannot overtake “overtakelessness”, they can delimit the shape of the field that cannot be got around and thus make the magnitude of the loss palatable, visceral, visible.

Immersing myself in these works, I realize that grieving presents an opportunity to remember oneself with the community of those who seemingly have nothing in common. In effect, “to remember” has nothing to do with recalling or recollecting but, rather, with unforgetting and entering into. Specifically, by reading these works, I un-forget that grief exists all the time, that the verb “to grieve” names a conscious and transformative turning-toward that existence, and that, despite the withering solitude felt after the death of a loved one, others’ grief can establish a disjunctive togetherness into which I can and must enter in order to heal.Will Daddario , To Grieve

“The true language of these worlds opens from the heart of the story that is being shared between species. For us to be restored to the fabric of this earth, we are bidden to enter this tale once again through its many modes of telling, to listen through the ears of others to the mystery of creation, with its continually changing patterns, and to take part once again in the integral weave of the narrative”. a partial remix from the fruitful darkness. Joan Halifax

The lightness of reading words

Random Thoughts on embodied reading (a remix) Juxtaposing’s color and words. From Erwin Schrödinger the great Physicist

From Schrödinger’s theory recolor; he says in essence, that when we see color, we experience some domain beyond the immediately material one. He locates this domain in the great “self,” because it cannot occur merely in individual, private persons, and concludes that in some fashion we are all part of this great self, and that our individual self-ness, as we experience it, is there by virtue of our participation – and belonging to – the greater self.

Juxtaposing inner light and color. From Christopher Alexander The great Dean of Architecture

Alexander’s theory on inner light and color and seeing. Alexander’s theory extrapolates Schrödinger’s and goes beyond it, and reaches his own conclusion. He suggests that the inner light, which is revealed, seen, when very great color occurs –  as  it does in nature, as it does in greatest paintings – allows us to experience the great self in greater degree or in lesser degree, and that our experience of inner light is the experience of the great self directly and openly seen, openly experienced.

Embodied reading

A synthesis of color light and words

I then juxtapose from Christopher Alexander’s and Schrödinger’s argument. In short, the experience of embodied reading a kind of inner light (a metaphor for reading) reveals an ultimate world of a soulful existence, perhaps, and shows us a glimpse of deeper states of being-ness which is more profound, more beautiful, than the one we experience every day. Embodied reading of content that echoes one’s humanity (one’s true nature) shares in similar light words and sound that reveal the real self. And when expressed in a small intimate setting as reading the collective embodied energies are forces that engage heart felt openings.

Random tinkering of thoughts from C. Alexander’s Luminious Ground  , Saïd Osio

Embodied reading at the BLOCK off biltmore

Our embodied reading group seeks to do the same thing: to create  a small intimate circle of individuals from the greater Asheville area together to imagine grief and Death together, to enhance our death literacy, and to engage in deep healing and thinking about difficult subjects.

Beginning in February at the block off Biltmore a few will journey – experiencing a topography of the land of exile. A moving tribute to the arbitrariness of death or grief. Third-messenger, re-ignites the fires and the existential challenges of death, sorrow and grief to be mindful and heartfelt with the journey.

The book is an expression of grief, an artful working through of the devastating loss of a child. Grossman in Falling out of Time gathers together individual stories of loss within a fictitious landscape to begin imagining a community-wide recognition of grief. Thus the book and the reading become the theater of words, of sounds of community.gathers together individual stories of loss within a fictitious landscape to begin imagining a community-wide recognition of grief.  “A panorama of breathtaking emotional force. About the shapes, and shadows of emotional force that surround love and memory, and about the sharp and desperate edges of love and fear.”New York Times book review

A reading from Falling Out of Time

In an instant we were cast out

to a land of exile.

They came at night, knocked on our door,

and said: at such and such time,

in this or that place, your son

thus and thus.

They quickly wove

a dense web, hour

and minute and location,

but the web had a hole in it, you

see? The dense web

must have had a hole,

and our son

fell

through”

Through a close shared reading, structured activities, and facilitated conversations will help participants register the book’s ideas on a ( somatic ) bodily level while also developing a vocabulary to talk with others about grief loss and death.

A hole our child fell through

In 2013 my Eva fell through. In 2014 Joanne and Will’s Finlay.

 

Joanne Zerdy, PhD, and Will Daddario, PhD, of Inviting Abundance will bring their backgrounds in the performing arts, theatre, and creative grief work to facilitate this group alongside Said Osio of Third Messenger. The group will meet on the following dates: Feb. 9, Feb. 16, Feb. 23 Mar.2. at the Block off Biltmore.  To registration required ( see events (thirdmessenger.com). The criteria for joining the group is a willingness to purchase the book or find it in a library, to read it, to engage in conversations respectfully, and to commit to meeting for all four dates.

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