the creative notebook: honing our observation skills
The political is always personal, and upheaval is always threatening to overwhelm us. It's important to get really good at naming what is in front of us and around us.
There is a lot, just so overwhelmingly much, happening in the U.S. government these days. And the problem with all that national politics is that politics affects local, personal, individual lives. It not only affects the everyday lives of everyday people–it is intricately interwoven into everything we do. It affects our interactions with strangers. Our safety. Our neighbor’s safety. Politics is always personal.
Politics is not some far-off thought experiment that we can discuss with differing opinions (like Libby Eddleman’s insight about Ezra Klein’s observations of politics in Gaza as if it’s a thought exercise vs Ta-Nehisi Coates’ observations of politics and how it affects lives). Politics is our lives, and it determines the quality and value of our lives. Politics determines our children’s education, our transportation, our health care, our access to opportunities and to our everyday infrastructure. And so much more.
This is not unique to the United States. It’s the same everywhere. Here in Spain, whether or not my little town has a pool and a doctor? That’s politics. Whether or not we still have a farmers market every week in the plaça, and the price of a lot of those fruits and vegetables? Yep, directly influenced and shaped by politics year to year. Here in Spain, and there in the U.S., and in every country, politics isn’t some nebulous, neutral debate topic.
Politics is the arrangement of our societies. It is embedded in everything.
And so, when I watch the political upheaval in my home country of the United States, I know it means personal upheaval for everyone living there too–and it means infinitely more upheaval for my immigrant friends, my black and brown friends, my lgbtq+ friends, my friends who depend on medicaid to keep their kids healthy… and so many neighbors of those friends, too. The upheaval in everyone’s daily lives has been weighing heavily on me. I am hurting for those who are hurting.
And from over here, other than writing my reps and voting when voting days come around, I don’t know what else to do. What can I do from over here in my tiny village in Spain?
Well, I can share with you a practice that may not overcome the upheaval but will help you survive it, and be able to fight it another day. Because one thing I know about upheaval is that it tries to distract you. It tries to unsettle you, to wear you down. And one of the best ways I know of for resettling, recentering, and reconnecting to the present? It’s to simply take a deep breath and look around you.
To stop, look right around you at the physical world, and name it. To make sure to also see the beautiful little bits right in front of you. Beauty will help us survive. So friend: today we are going to reconnect our bodies to the physical world right in front of us. We are going to hone our observational skills because not only is it a coping mechanism for the overwhelm of political/personal upheaval, but it then arms us to go out beyond what is directly around us, and to better see what is happening in the broader world, as well. And if we need anything right now, it’s to be able to center, and to be able to continue seeing clearly what is happening around us. To name the things. To say them out loud, to put them into words. To be witnesses, and to speak up, speak out. To name the thing without fear.
So no, this journaling practice you’ve been doing with me? It’s not useless and it’s not just a “silly little thing” to reconnect to beauty. It is survival and it is resistance. Observe around you. Name what you see. Name it clearly, directly, in detail. Stay in the present, and stay observant.
This week’s journaling prompts
First, let’s do a little Visual Play: Look around you. This week is all about honing our observation skills, so stop for a moment and see what you have right in front of you. What bits and scraps can you move to your journal that you find next to you? Perhaps it’s in the recycling bin in the kitchen, a wrapper or box or cookie sleeve. Perhaps there are post-its with reminders scribbled on them on your desk. Perhaps it’s in the drawer to your left, those stickers and stationary that you never know what to use for–maybe some of those bits and scraps can be arranged in the corner of a page. Gather those all together, overlap them, glue them down.
Writing Prompt: Now that we have started looking around us, looking enough to uncover hidden “treasure” to capture in our journals, let’s move on to our writing prompt this week. This week’s prompt is all about slowing down and describing what is next to us. Two weeks ago we talked about taking a visitor on your everyday routine or errands. Let’s continue with that reminder to start paying closer attention to our everyday lives. Today we are noticing what is right in front of us. Take ten minutes, set a timer (oh yes, I’m making you use a timer again) and spend that full ten minutes describing your surroundings. What is next to you, in front of you? No judgment, no assessment or opinions. Just straightforward description: there is a glossy, deep brown coffee mug from IKEA, with just a single sip left of cafe con leche in it, cold and deserted. Next to it, my red sunglasses, thrown aside when I suddenly realized they were still perched on my head and making that spot behind my ears hurt. Behind them, The Book of Alchemy by Suleika Jaouad, thrown on top of a pile of receipts and bills in no particular order. …. And keep going.
And then when you are done with your journal: friend, keep going. Sending love to everyone in the midst of upheaval this week.
This week, you could also:
Catch up on Instagram: l’Artesania retreat center, the creative notebook, and me.
Plan a visit to L’Albi
Schedule a creative journaling workshop or plein air session with me
Missed a letter?
Last week:
month in review: september in the olive groves and in the big cities
·This month, my friend Nuria, owner of Albium, the award-winning olive oil company, took me on a tour of their olive groves. And yes, when I say award-winning I don’t mean some piddly little local contest, which on its own would still be a feat, because we are after all in the middle of Spa…
Such a great post. What's happening NOW is such a great way to ground and way to remember that while anxiety can light fires only presence can sustain them.