Sometimes I have trouble grounding in "the real world". So you gotta learn little tricks. Things that make it easier to focus on where you are walking, not just walk mechanically.
Photography is one of those little tricks. For me.
Yesterday afternoon, my intellectual side wanted to sit and get mired down in some Robert Mapplethorpe catalogues. I'd like to write something about Mapplethorpe's stuff, particularly his X-rated work. But I knew I'd end up sitting in front of my computer till nightfall, and that would leave me antsy and unpleasant.
So I got another thought. Reflection. Chase reflection.
The plan was simple. Go out there and keep an eye out for any and every interesting, unusual or just mildly exciting reflection. In water, in windows, I didn't really have a fixed point of interest.
Urgh. I immediately thought. This woulda worked better yesterday. After two storm-heavy days, the sidewalk was littered with reflective puddles.
Sure, came the answer. Except it's no longer yesterday. So I checked tha battery on the camera, and went to work.
It felt a little goofy at first, stopping to take weird angled photos of people's cars and windows. But the more I walked, the more I relaxed into it.
The more I managed (to my delight) to stay present. You can't go too far up in your head if you're on the lookout all the time for reflective surfaces. So that acted as a nice strap to pull me back into "the real world".
Interestingly enough, we get fresh answers to old problems when we set them aside awhile. Walking back home a couple hours later, I found myself pondering an old curiosity from a new perspective. I may write about it here sometime, but for now, it was interesting to me that had I left my camera at home, I would've no doubt fallen into the same patterned thinking I typically engage in.
I would've walked the same paths, where yesterday, I found myself tracing new streets, and going backwards to how I normally walk in that area. It is, after all, my area. Experiments of the soul must be carried out in safe environments, after all.
My photography wasn't great. But for the evening, I forced my inner critic to shut up and just play. Hang loose. See where it took us.
I ended up quite happy with the results. Because they were, if nothing else, real.
Do you have any secret practices for grounding when your mind runs away?
