Wednesday, January 4, 2017

29. Attentiveness

Let’s say that you gave your friend a gift.  Not just any gift, but something significant, something we had considered especially for them, something we think might even be significant for them.  We take some time to display it to them, wrapped, indicate that it is especially for them, chosen by us.  They unwrap it, glance at it, then set it aside and continue talking to us about their latest drama.

Wouldn’t we be frustrated? Wouldn’t we be tempted to be angry? We had gone to all our effort, but they didn’t care.

The Spirit has done the same thing.  He has given us today. All the events, all the scenery, all the food, all the people—they were especially established for us, this day.  It isn’t that the Spirit wants us to give thanks for every conversation, every bite of our breakfast, every moment of peace.  However, it might not be too much to ask for us to pay attention to what we are doing, to what we are saying, to what we are receiving.

This is another spiritual discipline.  To just focus on what we are doing.  To pay attention to our spouse when they speak to us.  To attentively listen to the music we are hearing.  To actually taste the food we are eating. 

We all multitask sometimes.  We have to.  We will be taking care of our kids while on the phone.  Someone will talk to us over our TV show.  Life happens.  But when we make multitasking our life… which is happening more frequently to us who live partly in cyberspace… we no longer experience anything.  Nothing is memorable, and the greatest events of our lives slip through our fingers, often without a memory.


It is a form of meditation to take certain events, certain moments and just pay attention to them.  Treat a moment in nature as a significant event, not to pass through quickly, but to remember.  Consider the smells, the sight, the feel.  Recognize that the Spirit is with you.  Appreciate his presence. 

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