Phoooooooooooo. What a difference! What a day! We played. We played. We played. Thanks to Anna Levy, my work was finished yesterday, so my sleep was sweeter and softer and my whole demeanour gentler. I have stuff to do, very much stuff, but not the wrong way round. I spent a good proportion of the day untangling cables and counting old phone handsets in a tiny room. Symbolic. At least I hope so. Quite satisfying.
And then I hosted for the rest of the day. I enjoyed it. Giovanna is a sweet peach and Anna is, as always, warm, welcoming and a pleasure to be around. She always has goodness for people, whatever is going on, and she has an amazing talent of picking up on what people need. Admirable, that's what she is, that Anna.
Nice pizza lunch with lots of lovely people. I do love being there. You get to talk and play and laugh with people you would never otherwise come into contact with. There was an event on. I thought Giovanna and I did a sterling job of sorting out flip charts when there weren't any and making them feel welcome and looked after. Oh, and the stove kind of exploded a bit, but we switched it off. You can tell which one - it's kind of blackened on the inside.
Oh, and more offers of potential work before I left. Very, very pleasing, all of this. Could be exciting stuff. And an email from an old friend I was thinking about yesterday. And the opportunity to help run a workshop at the Fuse festival. Brilliant.
A meaty cycle up to Finchley Road, a little bit against the clock as I didn't leave until just after 6, by my watch. And then our session. With just four of us, we played Columbian Headfuck (1-3)* - a game I played with the inspiring Patti Stiles this autumn. I'd played it once before, probably with Shawn Kinley, but somehow the name makes it even more special.
* Today's images are courtesy of a google image search on this phrase.
We laughed SO HARD. It really does fuck with your brain and your body. It's Zen without the birch beatings. It's a lesson in relaxing and letting things happen. It's absolutely brilliant. So we made it harder.
Normally, it's a partner game - you do actions and say words, one at a time, with a partner, and you confuse each other's brains. There were five of us by then, so we did it in a line of five. Words first, then actions, then both, starting at different ends of the line.
Words like this don't do it justice. The fabulous feeling when your mind just CAN'T get in the way because it's too busy being confused - that feels so good. And playing with people who make you smile and where getting it wrong really, really IS one of the best bits of everything. Oh yes.
And then Rob came up with a fabulous new thing for us to try. What I love is the attitude of genuine experimentation that he brings. Really a sense of 'I've had this idea, let's try it out' and then 'Ooh, what if we... ' and 'Yes, let's add...' or 'Oh, oh, oh - new idea!' and we're off.
And I just remembered - I get to run an improv class on Thursday at Oxford House. There is so much scope of what to do. So much. SO. MUCH.
I felt blessed, being part of that. I felt like I could notice again the depth of the blessings that have been there all along, but that I've been separate from for the last few weeks, my head buried in my delicate ego (and a little way up my arse). They have been there, though. They really have. All of them. I understand a little better now.
I smiled all the way home, about half an hour's cycle, with some massive hills. I grinned. I beamed. I floated up those hills. I just took my time and smiled my way ahead. I felt that surge of goodness back again.
If today was a prayer, it was a dancing kind of prayer. That's what it felt like. May more days be like this. For me, play is such a huge thing. Such a gift.
Foca, if this is what you meant with that exercise you set... hmmm... I will continue to experiment.
And now to sleep. Thank you Ruth, and all my love to you. I'll be crawling in to switch of the broadband in just a minute now. I wish you peaceful sleep.
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