Easy to Say, Easy to Read About, Harder to Do
“The secret of beginning a life of deep awareness and sensitivity lies in our willingness to pay attention.
“Our growth as conscious, awake human beings is marked not so much by grand gestures and visible renunciations as by extending loving attention to the minutest particulars of our lives. Every relationship, every thought, every gesture is blessed with meaning through the wholehearted attention we bring to it.
“In the complexities of our minds and lives we easily forget the power of attention, yet without attention we live only on the surface of existence. It is just simple attention that allows us truly to listen to the song of a bird, to see deeply the glory of an autumn leaf, to touch the heart of another and be touched. We need to be fully present in order to love a single thing wholeheartedly. We need to be fully awake in this moment if we are to receive and respond to the learning inherent in it.”
—Christina Feldman and Jack Kornfield
Stories of the Spirit, Stories of the Heart from Everyday Mind
[Above: A dumpster (detail) I photographed in Boston along the waterfront—like abstract paintings, like raku ware, like my face as I get older.]
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