Montreal, Nov 15, 2018, 4:38 pm (action for grounding; after an invigorating talk with a new colleague)

Action notes: Sitting in my office on the Concordia campus, after a lovely and long talk with a new colleague — one of those conversations where 2 hours have passed but it feels like 10 minutes — and before going off to another colleague’s for a dinner reunion. Taking a few minutes to ground before switching gears and leaving the office, I decided to sit at my desk and hear the sounds of the building, as far away and as close and with as much variety as possible. The closest sounds are the whoosh of my laptop in harmony with the buzz of the fluorescent lights, and there is an interesting sound in the distance that must be construction….a machine of some kind (“floop, clack”). It echoes and punctuates, moving through the sounds that all make sense (the drone of people talking over by the elevators, the odd word clear but mostly just a gaggle of voices) and strongly invading my local space.

Action constraints: I felt rushed, in the end, wanting not to be late for the dinner, and am missing the complexity of sound that I would surely hear if I stayed in place, listening, longer. This highlights how long the practice takes, both the listening and writing it up. I think 20 minutes will be enough and 40 minutes later….

rushing