For audio meditations, please go here
Fiona Middleton
Concentration; a mineral gathering
Monique McCrystal and Deja Redman
Harmony (with the whole)
Naoco Wowsugi
The Sound of Zeroth
Riane Tyler
Your Deepest Ocean Meditation
Lily Cox-Richard and Michael Jevon Demps, Library of Radical Returns
Dowsing Bodies
Tifani Kendrick
Breath-Centered Meditation to Connect with Creation
GM Keaton
Points of Contact: Learning to Float
Sara Smith
When humans dive, are we marine mammals?
Five considerations as we breathe.
Nicolás Dumit Estévez Raful Espejo Ovalles
Meditation for Divers
Rachel Hilton
Air and Water
Brad Fox
Spectral Melt
FOREST-BODY-CHAIR at Mildred's Lane
Julia O. Bianco, Rachel Schmoker, Sara Smith
Acknowledgments of the Honorable Guest
Gina Siepel, Ainsley Steeves, Samiha Tasnim, Lotte Kliros Walworth
I Have Questions
Ruby Waldo
Untitled
FOREST-BODY-CHAIR is a project of RAY (the collaborative team of Gina Siepel and Sara Smith), using wooden chairs as an occasion to explore entwined ecological, embodied, and social questions connected to their construction and use. A three-week workshop version of FOREST-BODY-CHAIR at Mildred’s Lane in July 2021 brought together participant-fellows and guest artists for conversation and experimentation across somatic, greenwood construction, and fieldwork practices. Meditation Ocean was introduced into the session, allowing for additional associations to be made between forests and oceans, as well as contemplation of breath as an environmental process and metaphor. Participants were invited to develop meditation scripts collaboratively or on their own.
Orient yourself to the present moment
Bringing focus to your place in this world.
Take this moment to take a breath
And bring awareness to the body.
Take an inhale and reach arms overhead,
Stretching fingertips toward the sky, clear and expansive.
Exhale and lower the arms
Again, bringing awareness to the body.
Inhale the breath as arms reach higher toward the sky
Exhale as the arms release
Inhale as you imagine the body lengthening
Exhale as you lower your gaze,
And look to our blue planet,
Our liquid world,
Vast seas swirling,
Oceans offering,
Familiar and foreign,
Together, breathing.
Together breathing,
the ebb and flow.
Together breathing,
The exchange of gases,
Together breathing,
Recycling the same oxygen, nitrogen, and carbon dioxide
Together, breathing.
Inhale for one, two counts, hold the breath for a moment,
Exhale for one, two, three counts
Quiet
Inhale for one, two counts, expanding the lungs, hold
Exhale for one, two, three counts
Linger
And sip the air for one, two counts, hold
Exhale for one, two, three, maybe four counts, with ease of breath
Savor
We are air and water,
Breath and body
Buoyant in clear blue green light.
Imagine the body weight,
Weightless
Our liquid world,
Vital,
Fluid,
Atmosphere and ocean
Breath and body
Our shared survival.
Continue to inhale for one, two,
taking in a little less than you
Exhale for one, two, three or four,
giving more.
Imagine our sea for one, two
Exhale and wonder at the wonder of water, giving for two, three, four.
Inhale, imagine abundant life
Exhale, give and the sea gives back.
Inhale, what do we want to breathe?
Exhale, a sense of calm and peace.
Inhale, imagine translucent waters
Exhale, water is life.
Inhale, collective breath
Exhale, preserve.
Inhale, awareness
Exhale, protect.
Inhale, resilient
Exhale, restore.
Inhale, what do we need to breathe?
Exhale, clean air and clean water
How do we know we belong here?
We are breath and body
Inhale, take less
Exhale, give more
Inhale, take less
Exhale, give more
Inhale
Exhale
We are atmosphere and ocean
Inhale,
We are breath and body.
Exhale,
We are air and water.
Rachel Hilton
Air and Water