Day 1
March 22, 2013
The main idea is for those of us who participate in this wiki retreat, to be on the same page. Most explorations will be "15 days, 15 minutes a day." Please share questions or reports in the comments section of the day's page.
For our first exploration we'll keep it very simple:
PLEASURE READING
Please take 15 minutes, no more and no less. Find a comfortable spot, indoors or outdoors.
Set aside all questions, concerns and plans, and choose reading that you can spend time with, rather than trying to learn from necessarily.
This practice bears some relation to "lectio divina", which a way of imbibing a text and just enjoying a relationship with the work rather than trying to gain something (predictable) from it. The reading does not need to be something (you or) others would find impressive, just something you are drawn to. It also does not have to be a book or article of words. Perhaps it is an art book, or cook book.
Before you begin, set a timer, then take 3 slow, deep breaths to settle in. Drop preoccupations and agendas for just this little while. After the 15 minutes, set this reading aside for the day.
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Choosing the book was an exploration in itself for me too. Standing in front of a shelf with many choices of loved works alongside books I've meant to read for a while, I chose Proust Volume 1 of Swann's Way. Already, Proust is a slow read, and knowing that I would be setting it down in 15 minutes not to pick it up again for the day indeed changed the experience. I particularly noticed that when the timer went off and I stopped to stop it, returning for the last sentence was greatly pleasureable, with each word expansive.
Will return there tomorrow for another enchanting adventure.
Reading for me has always been a pleasure, an escape from here and now. edited 00:01, 23 Mar 2013
Page for 3/23:
https://wiki.playasbeing.org/Events/Play_as_Being_5th_Anniversary/15_Days_of_Stopping_and_Dropping/Day_2 edited 01:34, 23 Mar 2013
It was a biographical work by Patricia who played Lyta in B5 (sci-fi).
Very nice, conversational warm and humorous. The time limit was a bit of a bother since I usually use a clock radio for timing and didn't bother for 15 min, so I was glancing at the clock. Of course at the end I didn't want to put the book away, but I did :)
I'm thinking I have to just start grabbing random books off the shelf and start reading them in the middle, to avoid the introduction drag a lot of them have. Bill Gates once said that when he reads a magazine he deliberately reads the whole thing, since if he only reads the bits he wants to he ends the same person he was when he started. edited 00:38, 23 Mar 2013
Now which book?
Current pleasure book is short stories. Strict 15 minute gong might not fit short stories.
To be read shelf(s) is full of questions, concerns, learnings, lessons and gainings.
ah well, stopped anxiety and grabbed one. :)