in nature... in Tuscany

We had an amazing wonderful unique experience about two weeks ago - or one week ago - or just the other day... it's not important... what is important is that we went to the beach, the forest and hot springs in Tuscany. All this - as part of our exploration of the neutral mask - the horizontal... the sea, the beach, the horizon; and the vertical... the majestic hauntingly stunning beach tree forest. The springs were much less about analysis of movement and much more about relaxation - a gift from the school - that - and fantastic authentic Italian dinner... but that was much later.

Let's start at the beach...

So you can imagine there we all were, about 24 of us 'finding our vertical and horizontal' - you do this, of course, by "undulating" your body from your feet right up to the top of your head - so that you are the tallest you can possibly be - and as neutral as you can possibly be... tucking in bums that stick out - stretching chests that are sunken down - pulling back shoulders that are slouched forward... and so on. The undulation is a primal movement that we have have been doing from the early days when we were in the sea and then finally on the land wondering around on all fours until... after a few million years or so of evolution... we stood up... the undulation is still there - part of our core movement (unless you are in the army). So there we were, all 24 of us on this deserted drift wood stricken remote beach undulating to the crashing waves, imitating their erratic rhythm... studying the tragedy of the wave that wants to get to shore but will never make it. The wave does not retreat defeated it simply goes back as the next one approaches, with the same need to move forward... and like this, the tragedy of the wave continues. Why? Because. Neutrality!! Grr. It's so simple and so complex.

I felt a little like I was in the opening scene of Calendar Girls... But I couldn't think of my own cuttingly brilliant witty one-liner! And then of course I really got into it... The sea is like that - can take you to another world if you look at it for long enough. We then ran through the shrubbery and along the beach with the same intention as the waves... to move forward. Without judgment. Without comment. Without looking back. Neutrality. Ooo. It was fun. It was like being a kid again. Being present to the simplicity of what is happening right now. Not looking back. I had to work very hard to control my facial expressions - which I have become painfully aware of.

We then moved on to the forest, and it was all misty - which I thought made it even more special. The energy of trees. And with the mist - it was like being in childrens story - if you go down to the woods today... and all that! Here we studied the trees need to go up, how they grow in order to facilitate their continued growth - with their branches either filling the space if there is space, or their trunks growing tall and thin and bare in order to pass the branches of another in an effort to try and reach the sun... and make it! In this, is the tragedy of those trees that will never make it - but there they are - vertical. Of course we 'found our vertical' in the forest - rooting our feet on leaf stricken earth and undulating in front of these towering giants and bending back to see the very tops... in a sense we were becoming trees. It was wonderful and bizarre and terribly moving actually.


The photo's of the beach are courtesy of KT and this forest one, Sally - thanks guys x


Nature has the rhythm we wish to learn inherent in it - the gap in a tight forest where the next tree finds it place - a fat solid rock sitting between skinny trunks - the wave that retreats as the next one heads for shore, sometimes quickly, sometimes not. It was a special day. How this applies to our studies. Well. This is neutrality - or part of it at least. Rhythm. And the desire to move forward. Ya. Okay. I don't really get it either - well I kind of do.

We then moved on the the hot water springs - after you've gotten used to the rotten egg throw back memory to that standard 7 science lab experiment smell - it was fabulous - and seriously hot! The best part is that it was totally dark. Just a bright half moon peering out from behind a thin cloud.