From a pinecone stems a seedling
Last Thursday I met with Haruka and we went to the forest. The weather was warm and the forest welcomed us so openly, we had barely entered before we wondered off the footpath through crunchy leaves. Tall and gently swaying trees led us to a beautiful sunny clearing. Haruka and myself each shared a different view of the circle of whispering trees. We sat down in a shady spot and slipped into another plane of reality yet were still tethered to the ground and the trees and the sky far above us. Haruka placed a chequered box in between us and asked me to close my eyes, I started to tune in to the soft sounds of the calm forest and began to breathe with the rustling murmurs of the leaves above us. The air was surprisingly still creating perfectly clear air waves for birds to sing their songs to one another from across the tree tops. I listened also for Haruka’s breath, without trying my inhales and exhales began to match hers. I felt I was floating in the space of the clearing and cradled by the trees.
Haruka gently took my hands in hers and a connection formed between us, electric impulses between our fingertips. She recounted a story, a feeling, an energy through our movement. She would guide my hands in little fluid waves and circles, starting low and slowly building up. At points I felt so at the whim of her guiding hands, again like slipping into another reality, and at times without consciously commanding control I felt myself swaying the direction. We created a current that formed upwards. At times our palms were closer together and in the moments they were apart I felt the absence of space like a magnetic gel between our palms.
Haruka gently released my hands and carefully she placed the pinecone she had brought from Nagashima Island into my hands. I knew it was this pinecone and I remembered the story Haruka told of Hayato feeling the pine cone to understand it and I wanted to try to experience it with that curiosity. I traced my fingertips over its every facet feeling the honey comb texture and gaps, traces and patterns.
The moment Haruka placed the pinecone in my hands the wind slowly appeared. I felt it circle around our hands during the moment we held the pinecone together. The energy of the wind then stretched outwards, circling around our hands and between our bodies. It then swirled beyond, twirling around where we sat and joining the perimeter of the clearing. It seemed that together in the forest, our hands, our touch of the pinecone from Nagashima island had summoned the wind. I felt so strongly the presence of others around me. I did not open my eyes as I wasn’t afraid but it felt as though we were joined by different presences, people or energy. It was only later when Haruka shared she felt the same that we understood that perhaps it was the energy of Nagashima Island and its inhabitants, who planted the tree that offered Haruka the pinecone, and the pinecone that joined us here in the forest in Berlin.
After a while of being with the pinecone we continued circling our hands together. I felt as though we were carving a hole in the space in front of us, as though we were working together to build something. I could see it so vividly but I could not really describe it. I found this image and some how it gave me the same feeling. It felt like we were creating a rupture in time and space. The movement of our hands kept sprouting and opening, Haruka later told me that she hadn't done this movement with others when doing the same ritual. It reminded me of Chinese whispers and how translations transform and evolve meaning. Also of how meaning is so personal and subjective. I remembered that our first interaction this morning was observing the seedlings that I planted just over a week ago. We observed their different ways of sprouting and I think the movement, energy and meaning that we shared was of growing and nurturing something new. The pine cone was the seed and we were activating it like nutrients in soil and what grew was the immaterial experience we shared.
—————-
Hello, it’s Haru. It’s been a while since I had a wonderful reunion with Tani.
I wrote a note right after I met her, I’ll show that here.
🧡🧡🧡🧡
森とTaniとHaruと長島のみなさんの対話
その日はドイツの祝日だったから、みんなお買い物もできないし、自然に遊びに来ていた。犬も自転車乗りも子どももみんな。森でTaniと歩き出して5分くらいで静かに座りたくなる場所を見つけた。木がすーっと高くて、美しくて、見惚れていた。きつつきの話をしていたら、いろんな鳥の声も聞こえてきた。
地べたに座って、Taniの手を取って、ぐるぐるとまわして、土を掘る仕草を少し。そして、少しずつ芽が出て、木が枝をつけて伸びていく感覚を、二人で作っていった。Taniの温かい手はすっと受け入れてくれて、私もすっと渡せるかんじで、いい対話ができたような気がした。
そのあとで、Taniの手を少し開いて、長島から持ってきた松ぼっくりを渡した。その松ぼっくりを触っている間に、風が回り出して、まるで人が走っているような気配がした。「走り歩く」って長島のおばあちゃんは話していたけど、こんな感じだったのかなあと思った。地球の全然違う位置にいるはずなのに、ベルリンの森には長島の人たちの気配があった。
そのあとで、もう一度手を繋ぎ直して、木を生やす仕草をしようと思って手を回し始めた。今回はなんだか地球に大きな穴を開けているような気がして、その奥にあるマグマに触れて、それが噴火していく。そんな表現になった気がした。火山を表現しようなんて思ってもいなかったのに、二人の中にふつふつとそれが出てきて、表現されたのが、Maikaさんの曲とも桜島とも繋がって、いままでのいろんな旅での出来事が繋がったようで、嬉しくなった。
A dialogue between Forest, Tani, Haru, and everyone at Nagashima
That day was a holiday in Germany, so everyone couldn't shop and come out to play in nature instead—dogs, bicyclists, children, and everyone else. In the forest, Tani and I started walking and after about 5 minutes we found a place where we wanted to sit quietly. The trees were tall like long legs and beautiful and I admired them. We were talking about woodpeckers and we could hear all kinds of birds.
Sitting on the ground, I took Tani's hand and twirled it around and made little gestures of digging in the dirt. And we both created the feeling of a tree gradually sprouting and growing with branches. Tani's warm hands were accepting my hands softly, and I felt I could pass my gesture to her without thinking, so we had a good conversation.
After that, I opened Tani's hand a little and handed her a pine cone I had brought from Nagashima. While I was touching the pinecone, the wind started to blow and I felt as if people were running. I wondered if this was what the lady on Nagashima had meant when she spoke of "running and walking Hashiri-aruku 走り歩く”. We were in a completely different part of the world, but I could feel the presence of Nagashima's people in the Berlin forest.
After that, we joined hands again and started to turn our hands to make a gesture of growing trees. This time I felt like I was somehow making a big hole in the earth, touching the magma behind it and it erupting. I felt like we were expressing that. I had never thought of expressing a volcano, but it came out of both of us, and what was expressed was connected to Maika's music and Sakurajima, and I felt as if the events of our past various trips were connected, which made me happy.