the challenge
We are going to lower our gaze today with the Ground Level Seed. This is a unique Seed as it can act as a Prism as well when played together with a different Seed. But today we will use it in its simplest form: looking at the ground to find something interesting that ignites our imagination.
my insight
The first Insight I saw was this leaf lying on the ground. You might be thinking, well what so special about it? You can find hundreds or even thousands of similar leaves at this time of the year. As you already know from past journal entries, what makes it special is that I noticed it — it caught my eyes and did something inside my head.
See how it looks magical with its color against the dark reddish pavement, how it looks vulnerable with this torn part in its side, and how alive it looks when you notice its veins. Maybe there are hundreds like it, but once I had noticed it, it became mine. It has a life of its own in my imagination.
The second Insight I captured seemed to be completely different at first. It was a piece of a picture, probably an ad, torn from a magazine. It showed a little girl playing outside in what seems to be a winter day. This piece of paper caught my eyes because it looked completely out of place on one hand, but deliberately torn from that magazine on the other. My brain generated the beginning of a few stories in parallel the second I saw it — it made me curious.
reflection
Two things occurred to me following the Insights I had captured today. The first concerns gravity.
Gravity is a great thing. Sooner or later all things find their way to the ground. Well, most of them anyway. And that’s why looking on the ground is a sure way to find great treasures such as the two I found today. It is so easy to ignore the ground on which we walk. Even when we take our eyes of our smartphone, we often look ahead of us, not downwards. Deliberately doing so can be a rewarding exercise which in turn rewires our brain to change points of view more often.
When I am looking now at the two Insights, it is hard not to see the connection between them. The girl playing outside enjoys the golden autumn leaves falling around her — leaves similar to the one I found just minutes before. And with that connection comes the tension: one Insight is somewhat sad while the other is full of life and joy. But then I realize the happy image was torn — it was lying in the middle of the street, completely detached from its context just like the golden leaf. When I consider this, it becomes anything but happy.
And so, as often happens, the two Insights, which had nothing to do one with the other in the real world, start to connect and dance together in my mind. A story emerges in the tension between the two Insights which could have never been created with only one of them.
mental notes
- When facing a challenge, don’t settle for one Insight — magic often happens by the tension between two Insights or more.
- Look down.
now it is your turn… be creative!