Sometimes, Trauma…

It has been an extremely strange year in many ways. Plans to create more material for this project, to do some exploring in wild places and some other adventuring needed to be put on hold by unexpected circumstance for a few months. It is strange when the drama itself is not yours, but it finds its way into the cracks of your life edges notwithstanding. Life can literally knock you over sometimes and it is hard to stay “grounded” when so much is demanded of your time and attention. I am proud of how things have been handled, but after a busy period March to July, it has been a wonderful feeling to have a little more space, and to “find my feet” again in the heart of the “Sometimes, Trauma…” project.

Coming back to language and our own voice articulating something of the inner world is also to find our feet. I have therefore been consciously returning to poetry and the photographs I have captured as a serenade to my own two mobilised anchor points. Taking photographs of my feet has been something I have been doing for quite a few years now as a deliberate act of meditation. These feet that keep me upright and centred in my world needed some recognition! How often do we not look down and see our feet? How often do we not notice the very ground from which our entire lives are lived? How often do we spend so much time looking forwards or into the distance ahead that we miss the little ant scurrying past, or the beautiful shell or curled leaf by our shoes? One day our feet will leave the earth and it strikes me that this “toe gazing” is a metaphor for mindfulness: look down at the ground on which you stand and don’t only focus on a horizon you haven’t yet reached. Hope for the future, create your plans with desire and passion – but also know what the next step is immediately ahead.

In putting photographs and thought together, a new poem emerged for the Therapy Sandwich Anthology, and I am happy to share it here, together with some delicate music and images.

Many thanks to Dave McKeown for his wonderful musical background and for editing the content of this video in such an emotive and powerful way.