This morning there was a cold wind coming in from the southeast. I wanted to go back inside, but I resisted the impulse, although my hands were cold. I stayed for the 5 minute meditation, uncertain of what the teaching would be. Then, I noticed how the snow had melted above the stepping stones of the path that goes from the front to the side of the house. The snow had melted above the stones, making bagel-like formations.
The act of noticing prompted me to notice other things. I verified that indeed the wind was coming from the southeast by changing my body position to feel the wind. I noticed how the surface of the snow in the yard was smoothed out in ripples. I watched the chickadees changing perches in the birch trees. I realized that this is what Tom Brown the tracker was teaching, this kind of open-eyed awareness. I realized that it is possible to maintain this awareness, and that being in nature, for me, makes it easier.
I used to avoid noticing details, preferring to sense energy shifts because it seemed more natural. I have been somewhat lazy about detail-noticing. Maybe partly because detail-noticing in our culture is often linked to a kind of coldness of heart.
More and more, as I practice mindfulness, I am able to notice from the space of the heart. I am being shown how to see the world with the eyes of the heart, the eyes of wonder. The world becomes illuminated as I become able and willing to open my heart to its details. I am a work-in-progress; but gradually and definitely I am gaining in my ability to see with child-like wonder.
The meditations and the “mindfulness drawing practice” are steppingstones on the path to seeing the world with new eyes– in essence, to be “awake.”
