Prop and Generosity

For this project we were tasked with the task of giving something the the rest of the class in some sort of performance. As I am someone who dreads performances, and is someone who is currently struggling with the events of 2020, I figured I would try and create a performance focused around the notion of peace. I usually find peace the most when I take moments to breathe out my thoughts and do some much needed yoga stretches, so I started considering how I could make that into a performance focused around generosity.

Over the week before the performance I collected rocks around campus, probably looking like an insane person on meth, but alas I did. I chose to use these rocks as my props for my performance, having them symbolized the burden of our problems we often carry around our shoulders as individuals. Then I chose to utilize the powers of sharpie markers to allow us to write physical words onto the rocks that specified what problems each of us were struggling with. I instructed everyone to sit down, and after they were done writing on the rocks I either invited everyone to stretch with me and breathe deeply or sit and breath deeply; giving these problems to the Lord and asking for His peace, which surpasses all understanding.

I don't think anyone joined me in my stretching, but I started to stretch on my own, as a symbol of giving my problems to the Lord as sort of a spiritual practice (like yoga). And as someone who hates preforming and often gets stage fright, the combination of being the only one stretching and the problems I had just wrote on my rock made me tear up a bit due to my own anxiety. But throughout the stretching towards the end I began to feel more peace, partly because I knew the performance was almost over, but also, I myself accepted Gods gift of peace.

Then, I instructed everyone to throw their rocks with all of their problems on it. A few classmates kept their rocks to be thrown at a later date, maybe for personal reasons because they weren't ready. But most of us threw our rocks. I had chosen sand stone for rocks so they would be able to break easy, and I wasn't disappointed. I saw a lock of rocks breaking after we threw them. Overall I really wanted this to be a mindful sensory experience, to bring us back into reality after this hard week.