🌸 Put Some Flowers 'Round Your Room

March Madness, Day 5

(Welcome to Day 5 of our March Madness series, with love from Genevieve & Ali & the Ally Show)

Georgia on my mind

When I feel really really really bad and can barely leave my bed/house, I sometimes still have the wit to remember something Georgia O’Keeffe said a long time ago:

In a way—nobody sees a flower—really—it is so small—we haven’t time—and to see takes time

like to have a friend takes time

We tend to accord this quote a lot of respect because O’Keeffe’s unique way of looking at flowers propelled her to art world superstardom:

Pick a flower, any flower. These twelve thumbnails are what come up when you Google search “flowers o’keeffe.” Photo courtesy Google, I guess.

You don’t like flowers? How about leaves:

Georgia O’Keeffe, Oak Leaves, Pink and Gray, 1929. Photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

Or clouds:

Georgia O’Keeffe, Sky Above Clouds IV, 1965. Painted when O’Keeffe was 77 years old, based on ~2 years of looking out the window whilst flying around on passenger planes. Photo courtesy the Art Institute of Chicago.

Or things you can’t even usually see, like music:

Georgia O’Keeffe, Blue and Green Music, 1919–21. Photo courtesy the Art Institute of Chicago.

I also love another less-quoted piece of wisdom from O’Keeffe:

I had to create an equivalent for what I felt about what I was looking at—not copy it.

But for now let’s just bookmark that thought, we can come back to this in a future post.

To see takes time

Don’t worry, I am not asking yourself to suddenly transform yourself into a world-class artist with a unique way of seeing the world. (Although if you feel like painting right now, be my guest!!!)

Bu no, no, no, no. Today I am not asking you to make anything at all.

I’m writing this post for the version of you that feels bad and can barely leave your bed/house.

If you are already feeling good (lucky you), doing this activity might help you feel even better. Or you could offer to accompany a feeling-bad friend as they explore today’s March Madness activity.

“Seeing” is shorthand for all of your senses

It’s annoying when people do this, I know, but I believe that when Georgia O’Keeffe said, “To see takes time,” she was also implying, “To sense takes time” rather than referring only to your sense of sight. Blind people can perceive flowers and have friends too, for example. This representation of the whole by the part could be synecdoche or metonymy for all y’all word lovers out there, but I’ll let you guys fight it out. For our purposes today, let’s just broaden the advice out to all the senses:

to smell takes time

to taste takes time

to touch takes time

to hear takes time

to listen takes time

to perceive takes time

to run a Perception Check in Dungeons & Dragons takes time (that link is definitely NSFW but it’s @#(*&@! hilarious if today is a feeling-bad day)

to feel takes time

to know takes time

etc.

March Madness Activity for Today: Take Time for Your Senses

1. Decide how much effort you are gonna put into this activity. Choices include:

   1. extremely low

   2. very low indeed

   3. low

   4. medium-low

   5. anything higher than medium-low

2. Choose an ambit that matches your preferred effort level:

   1. stay in bed

   2. leave the bed but stay in the room

   3. leave the room but stay in the house

   4. walk to your front door, open it, and look out

   5. go for a walk or roll or drive or anything of any duration

      1. If you have mobility issues, you can stay home and just let your mind wander over a very broad swath of your senses and imagination

3. Employ your senses. If you don’t have access to any specific senses, just enjoy the others please:

   1. what can you see?

   2. what can you hear?

   3. what can you smell?

   4. what can you touch?

   5. what can you taste?

   6. what can you perceive with your other senses?

      1. what is your body’s position in space telling you, if anything?

      2. if you have ESP, whose thoughts are you reading? What is that person thinking?

      3. what else? Hot or cold? Balanced, unbalanced?

4. If you get overwhelmed at any point, narrow down to one thing you are going to pay attention to, and/or choose only one sense to focus on. For example, look carefully at all the flowers / signs / lawns you pass on your walk instead of trying to perceive absolutely everything.

5. On the other hand, if there is not enough stuff around you to make this exercise at all interesting, intervene to do something about that. Go buy some flowers and put them ‘round your room, for example.

6. When you are done, choose one tiny little aspect of this experience that you want to remember.

   1. For example, once when I did the very low indeed / don’t leave the room / what can you taste exercise, I remembered that (A) I had a hidden bag of hot cinnamon licorice in my room and (B) I freakin love hot cinnamon licorice!! When can I get more?

   2. [EXTREMELY OPTIONAL] Take some action inspired by that tiny little aspect of your experience. Such as:

      1. take photos of interesting things you saw (no need to make the photos fancy or professional)

      2. write down something you saw that you liked

      3. sketch a little flower or plant that you saw or the letterforms from your favorite sign

      4. write down the scent that you could smell and what it evoked for you

      5. find that thing you liked touching and touch it some more (ha ha this sounds sexual but it doesn’t have to be. For example I like touching this and these in a completely non-sexual manner)

7. You’re done! Get along with the rest of your day.

8. If you enjoyed this activity maybe set up a plan with a friend to do it again sometime. To see (sense) takes time, like to have a friend takes time.

While you are out, you might see some flowers

or some letterforms. I am in love with the “S”s in the signage for Sofia Shu

If this isn’t clicking, consider the raisin

This meditation gets a lot of sh*t but don’t knock it till you’ve tried it.

Bonus points if you eat the raisin or whole box of raisins at the end:

Joni on my mind

As you practice using your senses and gathering your impressions, your ability to sense and to make sense of things will grow.

Ask me how I know.

Actually let’s check in with someone more widely known to be an expert in this area.

Yeah, I’m talking about Joni Mitchell.

This is the woman who titled an album, The Hissing of Summer Lawns.

Can’t you just see and hear and smell that? How did she do that?

And check this out, she made the album cover for that album too:

Is this the same shade of green you pictured when you heard the words, “the hissing of summer lawns?” Is this the same shade of green as Charli XCX’s celebrated cover of “brat”? Image courtesy Joni Freakin Mitchell.

Let’s dig into how she works with the senses with one simple song example.

I bring you one of my favorite Joni Mitchell songs, “Carey”:

[Verse 1]
The wind is in from Africa
Last night I couldn't sleep
Oh, you know it sure is hard to leave here, Carey
But it's really not my home
My fingernails are filthy
I got beach tar on my feet
And I miss my clean white linen
And my fancy French cologne

[Chorus]
Oh, Carey, get out your cane
And I'll put on some silver
Oh, you're a mean old daddy
But I like you fine

[Verse 3 - yes I’m editing for length this time 😈]

Maybe I'll go to Amsterdam
Or maybe I'll go to Rome
And rent me a grand piano
And put some flowers 'round my room
But let's not talk about fare-thee-wells now
The night is a starry dome
And they're playin' that scratchy rock and roll
Beneath the Matala Moon

[Final Chorus]
Oh, Carey, get out your cane
I'll put on my finest silver
We'll go to the Mermaid Café
Have fun tonight
I said, oh, you're a mean old daddy
But you're out of sight

See what mean? We’ve got

1. Visual images

   1. Africa

   2. filthy fingernails

   3. beach tar on feet

   4. clean white linen

   5. fancy French cologne (in a bottle or defuser presumably - can’t you just see it?)

   6. Carey’s cane

   7. Narrator’s finest silver

   8. Amsterdam

   9. Rome

   10. grand piano

   11. flowers ‘round her room

   12. starry dome

   13. someone playing rock & roll

   14. Matala Moon, whatever that may be

   15. Mermaid Café

2. Sounds

   1. well it’s a song so technically you can hear all of the images but anyway

   2. wind

   3. Africa

   4. clean white linen - can’t you just hear the sheets snapping as someone makes up a nice fresh bed?

   5. mean old daddy - does Carey talk to the narrator in a mean way? (How dare he)

   6. Amsterdam

   7. Rome

   8. grand piano

   9. scratchy rock & roll

3. Smells

   1. the wind is in from Africa

   2. beach tar

   3. clean white linen

   4. fancy French cologne

   5. Amsterdam

   6. Rome

   7. flowers ‘round her room

4. [editing for length this time but you can play this out for all the senses 😈]

5. other senses

   1. can’t sleep

   2. the feeling of missing something

   3. the feeling of not being at home

   4. the feeling of being at home

   5. liking someone

   6. liking someone even when they are mean to you

   7. being in or from Africa

   8. being in Amsterdam

   9. being in Rome

   10. the relish of furnishing or decorating a room

   11. not wanting to talk about fare-thee-wells now (believe me, neither do I)

   12. being out under the stars

   13. being out under the moon

   14. being somewhere listening to scratchy rock & roll

   15. putting on your finest duds, including your finest silver / getting ready to go out

   16. going out with your favorite person

   17. going to your favorite café

   18. having fun

   19. having fun tonight

   20. liking someone so much that you think they are “out of sight”

See? (See what I did there? 🥁) A mastery of the impressions that you can gather from your senses can in fact lead you toward creating your masterpiece.

But again, I’m not asking you to create a masterpiece today.

I’m just showing you how a little experiment with your senses can eventually flower into full-fledged creative work. I wanna give you a little extra pep or hope going into this experiment since you are having a feeling-bad day.

Go forth and practice sensing

Remember yesterday’s mantra? “Blankers gonna blank?”

Today, you’re a senser.

Sensers gonna sense.

Enjoy.

Or don’t enjoy. Even the things that are unpleasant to sense can help you learn about the world (e.g. I can’t sleep, I have sticky old beach tar on my feet, this product I bought to get the beach tar off isn’t working, this dude is mean to me, etc.).

So - ready?

Set?

Sense.

This one is easy, you’ve already been doing it since you sat down to read this. Just keep the hum going.

If you fancy sharing how it’s going, please do. I’ll just be sitting here quietly enjoying my senses till then. Actually I’m more likely to be putting some flowers ‘round my room. Join me?

And whatever you do, don’t go it alone,

Genevieve