Todays challenge was “To pick one of your five senses to focus on each day.  Take note of how many gifts come to you via a single port of entry.  Write about this experience.”

So, now I don’t only have to see what is right in front of me but I have to listen to it, smell it, touch it and then lick it, really!

I just couldn’t do a day on each – firstly I like to notice, but not too much and some things I don’t want to see; secondly because I can listen to a lot of shit and tolerate it, doesn’t mean i can do it all day; I can smell something is wrong, so probably wouldn’t hang around (we are not even talking about farts here…); touching things all day will probably get me arrested; there are lots of things I would lick and there are a lot of things that licking, especially in public could be problematic….

So, as I have decided that I will follow the calendar with only one thing a day (that was the original deal – I think the pledge I signed wouldn’t stand up in court over this one by the way!) – I think having to double up on being grateful for the next 4 days after today, is stretching the friendship and our legally binding contract.  So, today I decided to on the hour, wherever I was I would concentrate on one sense for one minute (I actually wrote it all down in a little sheet I made in my diary but noticed when I scanned it in you can’t read it so I will do a quick transcription):

0700 See
The morning light through the window woke me up – better than any alarm!

 

0800 Hear
The birds in our front yard when I was having a coffee outside – I even heard their wings!

 

0900 Touch
When I was meditating a breeze came (really slight) and it was cool and refreshing…

 

1000 Smell
That second cup of coffee!!!  (PS: I can still hear the birds!)

 

1100 Taste
Okay, bad one!  I had a cigar and it was wonderful (deadly… but…) (Sorry to all my sense – but I really enjoyed it and took my time)  Perhaps I am grateful that they are not illegal?

 

1200 See
I looked around my office wher I was doing my blog:  I saw the sun outside through the window and shed window – and decided to go out there.  it was better.

 

1300 Hear
We were just at our house in Berri and next door at the Berri Club was the kids Christmas party – I noticed above everything else the laughter of the kids playing – nothing like it.

 

1400 Touch
I had to move a heavy water feature at the house – strained to lift it and move it around on the sack truck – I liked the feeling of using my muscles – maybe not tomorrow!

 

1500 Smell
Getting hot outside and I walked down the block at home and smelt that summer hot ecalyptus smell that is only in the Aussie bush – grateful for living in the country.

 

1600 Taste
Time for a really cold cider – glass/ice/really cold – how do they make it so cheap and taste so good!!!!

 

1700 See
On the deck.  Noticed the shimmering of the heat haze coming from the fence – never noticed in before in living her almost 12 months…

 

1800 Hear
Grateful for the quite of the country – just sitting, having a cider, taking a moment…

 

1900 Touch
The cold ice (getting another cider) – ice in the Aussie summer – it is a miracle – grateful.

NB:  It is at about this time in my notes that my handwriting starts to deteriorate a little and my observations become a little more abstract….

 

2000 Smell
The ashtray smells – grateful I emptied it!!!

 

2100 Taste
Cider time!!!  How do they make it taste so good…

I only made my little time line go until 9.00 pm which probably is a good thing.  I wrote this the next morning, hence the late post – I was grateful I didn’t die from a hangover.

I hope tomorrows challenge is easier and doesn’t involve so much drinking….