At DesignInquiry, a friend (and colleague board member) proposed that each DI participant experience time (the topic for the week was >>FastForward>>) in a new way by making up a, a … something: event, moment, activity – something simple, easy – to repeat everyday. Her own Daily Practice was to go into her California backyard and stay there until she counted eleven birds. Her prompt resonated with me. Time? Who doesn’t want to slow it down, massage it, notice or bat it away?
She and I talked further about wanting to do a Daily Practice League project together, wanting it to be online where neither of us live much, (plus we’re on opposite coasts), wanting it to be a back and forth, a visual conversation. I said this might be kind of like killing a whole lot of birds with one stone. She said: “that’s the name”. So Gail and I started a, a … something.
In October 2012 or thereabouts, we began our Daily Practice League. The rules are simple: we each post in response to the other’s post. While posting every other day quickly slipped away and the accuracy of back and forth like a tennis match doesn’t always happen, we both use this space to look, think, putter, respond, notice and see where the work takes us, takes itself. It’s a bit of experimenting with loss of control — like a real conversation I guess.
Check out awholelottabirds and in easy Tumblr fashion, the first post you see is the most current, the last was the first.
Love that.
http://awholelottabirds.tumblr.com/
margo halverson 
…and if you wish to count birds in your own back yard–or wherever you may be next spring, here is the link to add to the data:
http://www.birdsource.org/gbbc/howto.html
The thing about sharing a practice is that 1) it’s always a delicious surprise to take a peek, and I can’t wait to see what a response might be!; 2) this sharing/collaborating–through time–prompts improvisation, hidden rhythms, and poetry; 3) a distinct and lovely way to say hello to dear friends.
I might sometimes be too busy–that’s an excuse, and a sorry one on so many levels–but gloriously enough, there’s no pressure to add, just for the sake of doing so. The conversation, like Margo writes, has its own cadence and significance. It’s probably more akin to writing letters…