Foundational practice to learn how to:

• narrow a frame

• find more in what’s small

• expand ways to see and listen

• notice templates of understanding

• delight in what’s ordinary
  

Also a lovely way to:

• explore the dispositions you bring to your learning, work, and living

• connect with and ignite creative energies (prompts for writing and other expressions)

• identify and practice various modes of thinking (same-different, sorting, cause-effect, part-whole, systems, other)

• examine and reflect on processes that support intrinsic curiosity

Adaptable and relevant for all ages, contexts, experiences, and intentions.

Connected resources:

How to Notice (book)

Why small objects? (essay+video)

Exploratory practice, especially helpful when:

• it’s hard to see what’s working or good in a context

• things feel stuck, stale, and ordinary doesn’t feel extraordinary

• there’s a pull towards external searching and “solutions”

• a context is high-stress, messy, or noisy

• granular, practical nuance is needed to deepen and make tangible broad frameworks or goals

• not all members in a context feel heard, valued, or like their “small” piece of the work makes a “big” difference

Particularly powerful for people who practice in places of practice (educators, caregivers, leaders, facilitators, others)

Examples of practice:

tell it small: A way to support how to see and talk with others about moments of practice.

Small is Enough: A method of small frame observation to invite depth of description about practice.

What do you notice?: An approach to growing community practice around the simplicity of noticing small moments and scenes.

Layered, playful practice to:

• expand notions of feelings beyond aspects of emotion

• learn ways to listen to, play with, learn from, and express feelings

• notice where you judge, rank, and minimize certain feelings

• identify and stretch beyond old belief patterns and practices

• find nuance and surprise

• access deeply held creative energies

• explore various modes and languages of feelings

Ideal for learning organizations, educators, families, and communities who have a strong foundation with social-emotional learning and are looking to more deeply re-imagine their approach with children (and/or adults) and the beautiful potential of all feelings.

Related essays:

Tending to

Feelings as Material

Delightfully disruptive practice for those who want to:

• shift out of either-or thinking

• take responsibility for where they judge and separate from others based on ideas

• nurture an expanded experience of belonging

• allow for repair in a context experiencing division

• learn ways to integrate noticing of “beliefs” with other holistic practices

• stretch noticing beyond description, into listening and attunement for deeper resonance

Beautiful for any individual, group, context, or community longing for deeper listening, connection, and soulful congruence.

Related essays:

More Curiosity, Please!

It’s not a problem.

Glorious, creative, expansive practice to:

• attune to beings beyond humans—plants, sky, water, spirit, ancestors, dream, skin, soil, soul

• go into small bits of image-memory-symbol-color-texture-sound-sensation-knowing

• find and listen to your soul’s hum

• deepen your creative purpose and expressions

• find new dimensions to who you are and why you’re here now

In any context, with any set of materials, for any intention, amidst any conditions, it is always possible to find a beautiful way to see and connect with the small.

In fact, to begin without knowing why (without any effort of thought), to simply hold in your hand (or in your mind’s eye) one small thing… is more than enough to invite aliveness, delight, surprise, and miracles beyond anything we could ever plan.