A Little Attention Makes All The Difference
“The secret of beginning a life of awareness and sensitivity lies in our willingness to pay attention.
Our growth as conscious human beings is marked not so much by grand gestures as b 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 to listen truly 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.
We may think of our lives as an endless stretch of time that extends beyond the horizon. We are easily lost in the memories of our past and the fantasies of our future. We tell ourselves that we have time to postpone opening our hearts, to defer our quest for connectedness. But our lives are unpredictable and our days uncertain. We don't know what time we will have. What other place can we begin to live with love and wisdom but here, what other time can we begin to open our hearts fully but now?
Attention is sensitivity, attention is connectedness. The attention we bring to this moment reveals both the joys and sorrows of our world. Wisdom inspires us not to retreat from this pain but to ask ourselves how we can participate in the healing of our earth, our communities, our world. We often discover that the greatest healing can lie within the smallest gestures; a loving touch, a caring word, the gift of a compassionate heart allow us to extend ourselves beyond the boundaries of our personal worlds.
Attention is also the vehicle that connects us with the changing rythms of our own thoughts, feelings and yearnings. Learning to listen inwardly without judgement or resistance is to begin to understand ourselves - it is the source of wisdom. Such attention can begin only in this moment we find ourselves in (…)”
Extract from “Soul Food: Stories to Nourish the spirit & the Heart” Copyright 1996 by Jack Kornfield & Christina Feldman