A perfomance piece of my own
Ducks in a pond, just living.
I walk thorguh the park everyday on my short journey to my fitness group or my longer adverture to work. Animals do not normlly phase me, I never had a love for them, but the elgegant creatures that I see in the calm eaters of the Greenwich Park pond on a beautiful golden morning are somewhat pleasant to sit and admire for a short while.
I record the moents I have with a measley click of my camera phnoe capturing images of them splashing around freely. It is so different how I arrived there to relieve my stress, wheaeas they seem to be constantly living without a single care in the world.
Admiring the birds and their beauty makes me feel relaxed. They swim peacefully. Their chirps fill the air with sweet musical notes and these sounds stay with me throughout the rest of my day gving me memories that make me feel happy and chilled.
The atmoshpere is quite quiet apart from their chirping voices gving me a sense of space, making it eaiser to breathe (totally different from the cooped up third floor flat that I came out from).
Then the birds surprise me. They start flapping around quite dangerously splashing large amounts of water all over the place. This is when the other passers by seem to stop for a bit of a better glance. The ducks have livened up now and created a curious audience for thmeselves. The dogs that are with their morning walkers begin to bark. I’m not sure if the hounds are intrgiued bythe ducks in the water, or bothered by them. Most probably the latter.
So as the ducks play around more, the soothing ambience is completely gone. A few young children come along. They head to the barriers between themselves and the birds hoping to meet them and join in the fun! The connections between nature are now appreciable, and there is a realtionship forming between the animals, the humans and the environment in which they are engagng. It is now less relaxing but more amazing to spectate.
I dont have that long to sit and observe, although I wish I did. So the memories are recorded as i snap, snap, snap away on my mobile phone. The children’s attentions turn to me now, as they are aware more of my phone clicking than the natural events around me that were holding their attention before.
So with the morning’s memories in the palm of my hand, it is time for me to turn around and leave the cheery performance behind. I casually walk off smiling, preapred immensely for the day ahead.
Notes and refelctions on readings
Approaches, Presence in Absentia, Dionysus in ’69.