It was wonderful. I live along the Tamagawa in Kanagawa and frequently take long aimless bike rides. The thing I love about this area is the massive amount of green space that exists. There are various parts of the river that you can stop at and wander into overgrown brush. I personally find that the Kanagawa side is more interesting than the Tokyo one. There’s just so much more plant life and tall grass.

Today I stopped at a point on the river where I noticed a small path leading to a forested area. After pushing through the brush, it opens up into a massive rock bed. Among the countless rocks was one with some paintings on it. Two yellow circles surrounded by a pink outline. Inspired by Slow Art Day, I decided to treat this rock like a piece of art in a gallery. I told myself I’d sit down and look at it for 30 minutes.

At first, all I saw was what I described earlier. Yellow circle, pink outline. But as time passed, the image morphs and the mind stirs with imagination. A face begins to appear on the rock and I see it as an alien. One eye larger than the other. A bit of an erratic irritated look. Then I saw some pink spots coming from the eyes. The alien was crying? What does it look like when an alien cries? The color, shape, texture? This stirred up lots of ideas for a game I want to make (I really shouldn’t start a side project though).

I continue to look at the rock and see the circles as individual pieces. One a girl with a bright sunny face and pink hair. What an interesting character art style that would be. My mind continues to wander and I hear the 5pm jingle in the city. 20 minutes have passed. I hear footsteps come behind me. If I was living in the West, at this point I’d break my focus and look behind me, but I feel safe enough to continue looking (a privilege, but also the potential danger of being too comfortable). The footsteps disappear into the brush and I am again locked into the rock.

I start wondering if it was a child or adult that drew on this rock. I’m leaning towards a child since a child would more likely draw with no motive other than fun. I hope it was adult so I can feel warm knowing that not only children like to draw on rocks.

So much bird song here. A chip chirp. Bree coo. Kwa kwa. Swoo too. The gentle breeze is the bass line. Soyokaze in Japanese I learned while studying today (writing that down so it sticks).

So many bugs. This rock must be a home to hundreds of bugs. A fly lands on the top. Maybe its visiting a friend. Or maybe this rock is a pitstop along a journey. The pink and yellow rock. Another game idea that I shouldn’t start. I no longer see the rock. In the remaining 10 minutes I think of countless creative ideas. My mind has exhausted the rock and moved onto to creating new worlds in mind.

It was only 30 minutes but I felt completely free. No phone. No internet. Just me and a rock. This was a practice in attention. Mindfulness in the mundane. It’s been a while since my brain has felt that cleansed. All it took was a rock. Go find your rock.