O.K. so I'm trying to embrace Grace. Great. Rather a nebulous goal, don't you think? Well it sounded good to me when I wrote my first post...
One thing I learned from a meditation course recently is an exercise in living in the moment. The instructor told us: "In the normal course of your day, try to be aware of what your senses are telling you at any given moment. What do you hear, see, smell, taste, feel? Try not to judge what you sense, (mmm, peonies - I always think they smell like ivory soap, oooh, exhaust, yuk I'll hold my breath). Rather, just be present in the world around you."
It's really rather freeing, not having to process everything - and you may be surprised at what you notice that you may ordinarily have missed. One day this week I suddenly noticed 3" of new growth, neon green and softly swinging in the breeze, on the tip of nearly every branch of the tamarack tree I pass daily on my way to work! When did they grow to 3" in length - surely not overnight? How could I have missed this dramatic change?
On the other hand, just around the corner from the tamarack tree is a row of lilac bushes, destined one day to be a hedge, but planted just 2 years ago, they bloomed this spring for the first time. I stopped to smell them every time I passed them, and for a moment, just a moment, there was nothing else in my mind but their cool gentle fragrance. I had no thought in my mind about whether I was running late, the soreness in my neck, or my annoyance with myself for not tacking that decorative dish to the shelf so that it would not have fallen and broken last night... Just a moment filled only with the smell of lilacs, with peace, with... grace.
Be present, Barb
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