Rituals, although intentional and often spiritual, are not always pleasant. Some mornings I was attacked by relentless swarms of black flies, rained on, and collected (many) pebbles in my shoes. Despite all of this, the ritual of walking to the dock had become a promise to myself, and an opportunity to be right here, in the good and bad. In Donna Haraway’s Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin with the Chthulucene , she describes how ‘it is not about escaping or finding a way out of trouble; it is about staying in the trouble, working through it, and forging new ways of being together’. 6 In a small way, ritual, with discomforts and all, helps us practice the act of staying in the moment, with the discomforts, and troubles that are inevitably going to arise. Even before walking to the dock became a ritual I had decided to document this journey and turn it into something. The residency this ritual was held within was all about stepping away from work and into living. The theme for the week was living-a-making, therefore I passively recorded each iteration of the walk differently: audio on one walk, and then the ground, the sky, and then to my right on subsequent walks. Slowly I was capturing the repetitive nature of the walk, and ritual. I was creating something both spectacular and mundane. As an artist, and spectator, I am a fan of creative works that showcase the everyday, regular life, creating a framework for ‘experiencing the everyday differently. Art can provide a space for people to reconsider what they value and how they spend their time’. 5 On the last day of the residency I collaged the recordings of the walk to the dock to create a short video that also captured words that represented hopes and troubles, shared by other residency participants, many of these themes often tumbled
around my head as I travelled to the dock. Ritual, because it is familiar, frees our brain to drift. Somewhat like desire lines, a walking term that describes movement through a space based on the most efficient way of reaching one’s destination rather than following the designed and designated walking routes. As I walked the familiar path to the dock my brain was free to drift from hopes to troubles and back again. You can now find this short video, Walking Through Troubles and Hopes , below. Because we can’t be together, at the Poor Farm on Vinalhaven, Maine as you read this, I invite you to use the video as a guide or portal to transport you to the gravel path I walked that week in June 2024. Walk with me, along the undulating route, as we take notice of wild flowers, the glittering mica on the ground, and the, oh so lazy, clouds. How many times has this ritual happened? No doubt hundreds, or maybe even thousands, as is evident by the stories shared on the island and the worn out path. Rituals are rarely solo. Even though I walked alone every morning, many others, both human and more-than-human, have walked to the dock before and will continue to do so. On one of my morning walks I encountered a woman with a dog walking the path. I discovered she, Barbara, was the neighbour. She gifted me with her story of finding love on the island. I wondered, and continue to wonder, if that love still exists. These stories encountered were like priceless gems on my morning ritual. Perhaps you will encounter your own version of priceless gems as you travel with me, digitally, on this ritual. Perhaps it will be inspiration for you to start your own walking ritual, or perhaps not. Regardless, I leave you with the gentle encouragement to consider, as you travel: what are your hopes and troubles? £
Tricia Enns, Walking Through Toubles and Hopes . video, 13:22minutes, June 27, 2024. https://youtube.com/watch?v=ThNK8o0B08E
5 Odell, Jenny. How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy . Hoboken NJ: Melville House, 2019. p5 6 Haraway, Donna. Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin with the Chthulucene . Raleigh NC: Duke University Press, 2016
TRICIA ENNS is a designer, educator and artist. triciaenns.com https://patreon.com/triciaenns
41 on site review 46 :: travel
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