A Gap In The Hedge

How to pay exquisite attention

Hello Friends. Welcome! Today I will introduce you to our mindful writing tool for the month and get us started with your question, journal prompts and exercise. Do feel free to add comments if you are taking this course via the archive, I’d love to hear from you. Let’s go!

For many years I wrote something that I christened small stones - short fragments of prose or poetry that described something I had paid proper attention to.

The purpose of writing small stones was to stitch me into the world. The requirement of choosing the correct words was enough to help me tune into things - the exact shade of the ivy’s green, the sensation of walking on recent snow.

This kind of writing points me towards depth, not breadth. Patrick Kavanagh said:

“To know fully even one field or one land is a lifetime’s experience. In the world of poetic experience it is depth that counts, not width. A gap in a hedge, a smooth rock surfacing a narrow lane, a view of a woody meadow, the stream at the junction of four small fields – these are as much as a human can fully experience.”

I love this. There are many ways for us to cultivate this kind of attention - taking photos, walking more slowly, connecting to the flesh and bones of our bodies… How might it be to get to know our interior world in this way? To offer ourselves exquisite attention, full of care? To allow self-knowledge to unfold in its own time?

During this course I am offering you small stones as a kind of ‘space bar’ for the jumbled text of your days. Whether you write something down or not, see if you can pause once a day and open your senses to whatever is there. Allow your loving attention to linger. Ponder how you might describe what you are witnessing. If you would like to write one small stone a day (or even one) I would be delighted to read them in our discussion thread on Thursday - I’ll send a message with the link.

I haven’t written a small stone myself for years and so I will be joining you. Let’s see how rusty I am - I’ll try writing a couple now! You can also read example small stones here: Elizabeth K. Switaj, Carla M. Wilson, Dylan Tweney, Laurel Storey, Vikki.

Enjoy playing ✨ ✨✨

grey granite gravel path, a narrow stream of stillness through the grass

A building pressure inside, the ‘ought’ of a dog walk pressing against the desire to stay here.

Well, I guess I’m off on a dog walk now 🐶 🐶 Scroll down for the exercises…

Go gently,
Satya <3

Aiko on the Malverns hills on a VERY windy day

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Exercise for the week: Write a small stone every day. You can write these in a notebook, post them on social media or whisper them to your cat. If you’d like some more pointers you can read more about how to write small stones on my website here.

Journal prompts: What helps you to sharpen your powers of attention? How might you do more of that? What gets in the way of you paying attention? What barriers are between you and doing the exercise this week? Do you have any parts that tell you you’re no good at writing, or any other critical thoughts? How can you be more kind towards yourself as you take part in this adventure? How might you enjoy it?

Question to carry with you: What is it? (Try & ask yourself this as often as you can, whatever you’re doing, and see what happens.)

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Find Week 2 here.