When we listen with our full attention, whether to a friend, to the rustling leaves, or even an offering on facebook, we create an opening. We enter the realm of the wild, open to the creative possibility of the moment. Every encounter and conversation is an opportunity to enter a shared space, to discover our common ground in vulnerability, and awaken creativity, peace, and compassion.
There is a principle in improvisational theater of supporting another’s creative attempt, building on it, a collaboration and participation with the other that becomes a shared improvisation. We are playing, back and forth in the moment, being with another, finding yes. Yes and rather than a flat no – I hear you and what about this?
If I attend to the raven’s caw, I enter a conversation with this mysterious other, I wait in curiosity and presence, opening my senses, to see if there is a response. David Abram calls this communion: Perception, then – the whole play of the senses – is a constant communion between ourselves and the living world that encompasses us.
In the same way when I listen to the words of another or respond to a facebook post, there is the opportunity to support, amplify, draw out, learn more – and my favorite, meet at One. This is the wild possibility that intrigues me most, in every shared exchange there is a moment we can enter that reveals the nourishing ocean we swim in together, the Love that connects us all, the communion we share.
What if I am present to the other and nothing comes back, or I feel disappointed or ignored? There is always this risk of not being met. If I am present to the possibility of that moment, however, it is the presence I bring which nourishes me, and I can feel the disappointment at the same time as I feel the ocean of love supporting us both, in compassion for our us all.
The Nature of Us – Sabrina Page has an MA in Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness, a background in movement and dance, focused on embodiment. She has been deeply influenced by her connection with nature, shaped by playing in woods and water growing up. Sabrina’s writing explores the earth community, love, body, embodiment, interconnection, our planetary moment, music – and the creativity and possibilities inherent in being human.