Standard

we are surrounded by people every single day, if we are not locking ourselfs in a room or hiking a great walk in nature or doing any other kind of lonesome wandering. living in a city, town or village, and being part of this society means partaking in human actions and reactions. every time we walk on the street people are passing by, every time we sit in a bus people are sitting with us in this 4sqm of errant room, every time we enter a office, school, university, fitness studio, bar, supermarket, bakery, restaurants, club… wherever we go we are surrounded by people that we don’t know, we never seen before and might not meet ever again. most of them are just strangers. sometimes we look up and might find the colour of their hair, the dress they where, the skateboard they ride or the shape of their shooses interesting. most of the times we don’t even notice them, don’t care. and now a days lots of us building up a second world to enter within staring at our smartphones. holding conversation to friends, scrolling to the latest posts on Facebook or playing a mindless candy game.

how come this little screen is more fascinating than real human beeings surrounding?

when was the last time you actually looked in a random strangers eyes? can you remember the colour? its expression? and the feeling that it gave you? no?

next time you walk on the street or hop in the metro, try to find out how it feels like to smile and be strong and loving and respectfully look someone deep in their eyers. it is amazing!

i had the chance to be part of this wonderful eye-contact-event on plaza de sol in barcelona! around 200people sit dow on cushions, blankets and yoga mats and looked each other in their eyes for a minute or something. the energy of this place was just so huge, when i entered the plaza. it was almost completely quiet. people where sitting down or standing, smiling, crying, holding hands, hugging or kissing just any stranger that randomly sit down and stared at their eyes.

untitled-5581

i was just overwhelmed by this happening and a little afraid to try myself. but after half an hour sneaking around and taking photos and i wanted to expierience this experiment by myself. the first person i shared a minute of eyecontact with was a women middle aged standing in a hula hop ring. the other one next to her was empty. so i stepped in it and straight in this out of comfort zone experience. looking at her was difficult at the beginning, i did not know whats gonna happen. she had dark brown eyes, very generous and strong. after some seconds and a blink she gave me, i started feeling comfortable looking at her and could accept that intimacy. i could slowly release the wall i had build and suddenly a smile came up and we were smiling so truly at each other. the smile became a hug and stayed as a warm feeling in my heart when i steped out of the hulahop. i was very thankful and it made me feel belonging to this crowd of strangers.

in total i had actually five eye contact partners and one of them was very intense. a young women with almost the same haircut as mine, pretty, sat in front of me on my yoga mat. and then there started something special. i felt like i could teach her something while watching deeply in her brown eyes. telling her that she can stand what ever it is, that she just has to trust and let it happen, i took her hand and buried her had in my arms. we where smiling hugging and accepting our weaknesses and the only words i told her was, “we are on the same path” and she nodded and said “good luck”.  i actually wish i would have got more contact to her then just a long mintute of eyecontact but this moment was just too pure to ask for her telephone number or Facebook-name.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*