Tag: Nature

Practicing mindfulness: Come back to the present as much as possible

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Today I rose early and the weather had cleared after yesterday’s rain.  It was a lovely fresh morning, before the cloud and mist moved in again.  The birds are beginning to sing again and there was a sense of light and joy.  Bright mornings make it easy to feel clear and spacious within. And when we do, we find it not so difficult to be kind. It makes it possible to believe in the natural goodness deep inside us. However, even with bright starts on days like this we can still see that the mind has brief moments when it can get confused and dark. When a combination of circumstances come together that frighten us, we can become flustered and defensive.  It is always interesting  to see the mind’s capacity to wander from the way things are and live in thoughts and wonderings and wishing things were other, with the potential narrowing that this brings.

In sitting practice we are reminded to practice “starting over” – to return again and again to the breath when the mind wanders, without being harsh with ourselves. It is a lesson for life also. We frequently get distracted. We sometimes get lost.  And then we wander away from the natural kindness that exists when we are calm. So the practice is to simply try to start over again, by dropping into this moment, noticing what we are doing, becoming conscious of the breath or of the sensations in our body.  We do not need to add the extra judgment about how unworthy our behaviour makes us to the existing situation. We do not make a drama out of it. We acknowledge honestly and simply that we have gotten lost, or are in the wrong, and then go back to start over again.

Practice for this day: Noticing beauty around us

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Beauty and grace are performed

whether or not we will or sense them.

The least we can do is try to be there.

Annie Dillard

Smile, life is good

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How can you remember to smile when you wake up?  You might hang a reminder–such as a branch, a leaf, a painting, or some inspiring words – so that you notice it when you wake up.

Once you develop the practice of smiling, you may not need a reminder. You will smile as soon as you hear a bird singing or see the sunlight streaming through the window.

Smiling helps you approach the day with gentleness and understanding.

Thich Nhat Hahn

The winter is over, let go, move on

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It is so good to see the buds appearing on the branches and the first flowers pushing their way through the soil. Nature is full of positive energy and we too are part of that.

Be ahead of all parting, as though it already were behind you, like the winter that has just gone by. For among these winters there is one so endlessly winter that only by wintering through it all will your heart survive.

Rilke

When you don’t have the answers

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Some thoughts prompted somewhat by celebrating a birthday, the passing of time, and another poem by Mary Oliver.  A lot of the time I do not have answers to the questions that arise in me or to why things have happened. But increasingly, as the poet describes, I do not dwell too long on them as they have a capacity to stir up discontent. I prefer now not to try to put names or words on my journey, but to keep my heart moving towards an interior openness, or, in the image the poem uses,  to walk in an unnamed broad field. To let in space and the vastness of the world. All I can do is open up; what happens afterwards is not within my control. I will just try to welcome it. Life is an adventure, that continually surprises. Its joy and freshness lie there.

How did it come to be
that I am no longer young
and the world that keeps time

in its own way has just been born?
I don’t have the answers
and anyway I have become suspicious

of such questions,
and as for hope, that tender advisement,
even that

I’m going to leave behind.
I’m just going to put on
my jacket, my boots,
I’m just going to go out

to sleep all this night
in some unnamed, flowered corner
of the pasture.

To a heart, full of hesitations

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When today you have doubts and fears, why not follow the advice in this Mary Oliver poem. To look at nature all around you –  the buds beginning to appear, the early flowers blooming – and see there a support for your inner self.

Oh, my dear heart,
My own dear heart,
Full of hesitations,
Questions, choice of directions,

Look at the world.
Behold the morning glory,
the meanest flower,
the ragweed, the thistle.
Look at the grass.

Mary Oliver, The Singular and Cheerful Life