Self Portrait: Psychology of a confined space
Posted on | August 1, 2006 | 20 Comments
Like a flock of birds, I sometimes feel myself alighting into the slumbering weight of my body, just as the morning light first falls across the windowsill. Abruptly, I am there again, in our bed with my arm pressed up against his back, sleep heavy, and tingling. Trailing the gossamer of dreams, it takes a moment or two for my mind to slip back into this place of soft flesh and muscle, this body. Then I stumble towards the shower.
Every morning there are a few moments of disconnect: where my mind and body stagger towards each other like drunken lovers, in blurry recognition. The bifurcated pieces of me come back together under the shower’s steady spray. I linger there, in that tile enclosed space; often it is the only time I have unaccompanied, uninterrupted, with just my sore shins, bare skin, and slick hair. These first moments are almost a prayer, a meditation, an act of worship, bowing a the temple where body and mind intersect. It’s here, of course, that I have my best ideas. The most perfect, raw lines of poetry arise in my mind unexpected. Dreams come back to me in shreds, each piece jaggedly sewn to the next like the fabric of an old quilt. And then eventually the day creeps in. I hear noises from the kitchen below: the clatter of dishes being unloaded from the dishwasher, Bean announcing he wants more milk, DH making espresso, and almost immediately lists start to crowd in.
But for those first moments of waking, it feels like I’m teetering on the brink between two worlds, my face soaking up water and my mind wringing out dreams.
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More confined space self portraits.
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20 Responses to “Self Portrait: Psychology of a confined space”
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I am Christina Rosalie
Hello. I'm so happy you've stopped by!
I am a multimedia storyteller, digital strategist, idea starter, stalker of wonder, finder of four leaf clovers, MFA graduate student, and mama of boys. My first book,
will be published by SKIRT! Books in September, 2012.
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August 1st, 2006 @ 9:02 pm
Nice picture! And great post.
August 1st, 2006 @ 9:08 pm
What a beautiful portrait (both written and visual) of such a seemingly mundane part of the day.
August 1st, 2006 @ 10:06 pm
great work to capture the moment! Oh, to hold that moment a little longer before it evaporates …
August 1st, 2006 @ 10:44 pm
Beautiful both visually and mentally. Your writing is so wonderful, I wish your posts would continue on and on.:)
August 1st, 2006 @ 10:46 pm
I agree with Cee, in that you so beautifully described the most seemingly mundane daily ritual. I loved this post.
August 1st, 2006 @ 11:20 pm
Incredible incredible photo.
August 1st, 2006 @ 11:30 pm
This image is full of so much power.
August 1st, 2006 @ 11:38 pm
Lovely and amazing post, and what a picture! (And look at those tiles…) There is something wonderful about the shower, my brain finding all those fragments and pulling them together, now if only I could figure out how to drink coffee and shower at the same time.
August 2nd, 2006 @ 2:33 am
Thank goodness for morning showers, otherwise I would totally sleepwalk through the day. Great post!
August 2nd, 2006 @ 7:58 am
This is gorgeous…..the words, the image……everything it conveys….my favorite enclosed space photo this week.
The shower is where I can find myself again. I love your shower, we should compare showers….ours looks very much like yours does except our tiles are much smaller.
August 2nd, 2006 @ 8:31 am
Very powerful, Christina. And, I’m envious of your shower now, too!
August 2nd, 2006 @ 11:49 am
Really wonderful post. The imagery you create with the words rival the photo.
August 2nd, 2006 @ 3:08 pm
yes, beautiful shower! beautiful you!
August 2nd, 2006 @ 4:52 pm
for me it’s my morning walk…while putting on my clothes and shoes i’m almost in a trance, like i’m sleepwalking…but i head out the back door and little by little i come alive under the clouds and rising sun…
August 2nd, 2006 @ 9:21 pm
Christina,
I have been meaning to take the time to delurk to tell you how much I enjoy the words and images you create and express here. You have a way of seeing that is beautiful and sensitive and insightful, and you are truly gifted at being able to transmit these thoughts and feelings. Thank you for sharing.
August 3rd, 2006 @ 8:33 am
beautiful writing…
i especially like that last
paragraph, the meeting of the two…
perfect.
August 3rd, 2006 @ 10:09 am
ooohh! oooh! You should read Gaston Bachelard’s The Poetics of Space. He talks — in great and illuminating detail — about these same things.
Great picture, by the way …
August 3rd, 2006 @ 3:24 pm
i love the picture…and your description of this moment, i can relate to it so much. yes. the blurry recognition of mind and body.
beautiful.
August 5th, 2006 @ 6:12 pm
Beautifully written post that compliments that perfect moment in the shower.
August 10th, 2006 @ 1:03 am
that is a breathtaking take on the moment. it is beautiful!