Instructions for Living a Life
- Carrie Glover
- Apr 8, 2017
- 2 min read
So much to explore in 4 short lines! 12 simple words. What jumps out at you? When you read this quote what's the first thought you had?
Let's start by saying that there are actually MANY ways to live a life. And you are the great CHOOSER of how you live your own. You may not always get to choose what happens to you or around you, and remember that you always get to choose how you want to respond. Always.
Paying attention is how I understand mindfulness. Mindfulness, as a word, is used in our language more than ever. Likely, you hear it every week if not every day. But does it sometimes conjure up a picture of a buddhist monk playing tibetan singing bowls while sitting cross-legged? Now don't get me wrong, that can be mindfulness and meditation is a practice that I value myself. But mindfulness can also be noticing how the wind moves through blades of green grass, noticing the intricacy of a piece of stained glass, noticing what happens inside your body as you sit with a piece of art, noticing how your child scrunches their nose and the freckles dance as they relay a part of their day, pausing on the front step to listen to the bird's song, or noticing the smell of something blooming, inhaling the fragrance all the way down to your toes.
When we practice this kind of noticing, often there can be an accompanying sense of wonder, gratefulness, awe, humility, surprise, astonishment. I'm wondering if in order for that to happen we need a posture that is open to mystery, to the unknown, to uncertainty? Rarely am I in awe of the things I already know. I'm not often humbled by the things I've already conquered. There's no being surprised by the things I'm already certain of. Maybe.
Alright, friends! Last one...tell about it. I love this one. Telling about it offers the sacred gift of human connection. When we tell the story of our noticing and wonder, wether it's in a photograph, art, a poem, in actual words around a table of friends and food....we find connection to each other. And here's the really fantastic thing: it brings us full circle and you now give the other permission and space to pay attention, be astonished, and tell about it.
P.S. I'm almost always moved by Mary Oliver's telling of things.
