Ottawa, Nov 19, 2018, 1:44 pm (“special procedures” action; from Pauline’s Sonic Meditations document)

Action notes: This action was joyful. The act of making playful sounds helped uplift a body (mine) that has been feeling unhealthy. Imagining playful sounds similarly “lifted” my “spirits” and reminds me of the importance of mirror neurons in the quality of everyday life. Present sounds include a truck outside, rushing by, and the water in the pipes, and some upstairs creaking. Overlaid over these, I am remembering the sound of O’s little voice when he was 3, or 4, and the pitch and the timbre, and my insides melt a bit at the memory.

Action constraints: Listening to present sounds is starting to feel familiar, and, like yesterday, the “ouchy” quality of my body really emerges when my local soundscape is what I am supposed to attend to. Whereas making playful sounds or imagining playful sounds, or even remembering the sounds of Orion crying when he was a baby, all pull me “out of myself,” listening to my environment really places me in my body in a way that, right now, is uncomfortable.

bodydiscomfortMemorySounding