The One Beside

What to expect

We can carry someone with us long after a conversation ends. Sometimes we’re carrying what we wanted them to say.

This meditation has you bring one person to mind and sit beside them, not across from them. You lay down your account of them, the need to correct them, and the answer you’re preparing. You leave their face their own and their life in their hands. Then you rest, and come back into the room.

It’s for anyone, on any side, carrying someone they disagree with. That might be after an election, when a friend or someone in your family voted the other way. It might be an argument at dinner, a falling-out at work, or a group chat that got heated. It doesn’t ask you to agree with them, or to change your mind. It asks you to put down what you’ve been carrying, and to leave them room to be who they are.

Under it, a pedal steel and a Rhodes, two instruments from different worlds, settle into one key side by side. Soft rain falls outside the window.

How to listen:

• Sitting or lying down, with support. Never while driving.
• No headphones needed.
• Any one person will do. Their name alone is enough.

About

Safety and aftercare. You can stop at any point. Open your eyes, move, and notice the room. Choose someone you can think about safely. If the person who comes to mind has hurt you, or thinking of them brings up more than you want, choose someone else, or stop. This practice isn’t about excusing harm or staying close to someone who isn’t safe. It’s about putting down what you’ve been carrying. If a conflict weighs on you for a long time, talking it over with someone you trust can help.

Written by Lee + Twins. Voice: Lee.

Transcript

Opening

We can carry someone with us long after a conversation ends.

Sometimes we are carrying what we wanted them to say.

The conversation can wait while the body settles.

There is room here for the weight of it.

Sit or lie with support.

Adjust whenever your body asks.

Close your eyes gently.

Leave the explanation for now.

Feel where the story weighs, if it weighs anywhere.

Let that place have room.

Notice breathing continuing by itself.

Rest your weight into support.

Part One: Room beside you

Notice the room around you.

The space to either side.

Bring one person to mind.

Their name alone is enough.

Imagine being there beside them.

Leave space around them.

Part Two: What you hold

Notice your body’s response.

Let your jaw loosen.

Lay down your account of them.

Unclench the need to correct.

Release the answer you’re preparing.

Rest the wish to steer.

Part Three: Beside them

Offer your unhurried attention.

Leave their face their own.

Allow what you cannot know.

Leave room for their silence.

Let your hands rest open.

Say inwardly: You can be you.

Stay beside them without rehearsing.

Part Four: Leaving room

Leave their life in their hands.

Let the picture lose its edges.

Release even this picture.

Rest without holding them here.

Part Five: Rest

Nothing to do for now.

Part Six: Into the room

Feel your weight against support.

Notice the air around you.

Move your fingers and toes.

Let a fuller breath arrive.

Open your eyes to the room.

Take in its light and colour.

Stretch in the space around you.

Let your next movement begin.