Sit Spots

A full year after my mentor, Joe Walewski, gave my cohort of naturalists an assignment I am finally getting a round to actually doing it. It may not end up exactly as he assigned, or even close to that. However I am doing it. Today is my 14th day sitting in the same spot at Corny Beach for at least an hour each day. I have a routine here. Take a picture, sit and watch the waves of Gitchi Gumee and note their intensity (soft, but not still today), read by book (Schools that Heal by ___________), dive into the Lake, then read again as I dry out, switching to my novel (Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time today). I expect I’ll continue this trend for another week or so until I have to travel for a few days.

Sitting this way, collecting snapshots in time and watching changes every day or week or month is called a sit spot. I don’t know the origin of this practice, someone can hopefully give me a history, but I hope that contemplatively inclined humans have been doing this since the dawn of consciousness. It’s the practice of the Buddha, sitting under the tree and finding enlightenment. It’s the practice of __________. Sometimes we humans are drawn to a place, and we sit there many times in our lives. It’s a practice I have always been pretty bad at until the past two weeks.

Through sit spots we can see the world shift between weather and seasons, noting who is doing what and when. Here at Corny Beach, I’ve observed how tourists react to the weather and day of the week. There’s the obvious, with there being fewer folks on a blustery wavey weekend than a bright and warm one. But there’s the not so obvious, like there being so few people here on a perfect and sunny Wednesday. Today I noticed a high number of bee flies swarming about, harmless flies which have evolved to appear like the more painful and more bountiful bee. I notice that the way the Lake moves is changing between the summer and the fall, and the ways various levels of siche effect change the structure of the beach. Maybe tomorrow I will notice the smaller plants and animals at my spot. Having a spot, and visiting it everyday, gives me joy in the knowledge of my place. Here I hold space only for me, give myself a chance to become steady, and just breathe. Even living so close to Lake Superior, sometimes in the details of life it becomes easy to forget she’s there. Making these visits part of my life everyday has made it impossible to forget that the Lake is right there, ready to support me.

If you’re like me, a digital native born in a time of stimulation and content, it can be difficult to just sit in the same spot and observe. Don’t try. Please do have those moments of wonder in which the content washes away, but don’t force it. Don’t force your sit spot either. As you begin this practice just walk around, find yourself somewhere. Sit someday, maybe years from now, maybe tomorrow by the swamp or on that bridge you like. Then, as you find that place for the moment, take out your content whether that’s a book or a journal or crocheting, and let your conscious mind focus on that. The rest of your mind will make observations of the world around it, and give you curiosities to follow as you will. And then, the next, find yourself craving to return to the same spot, and go.