Tag: paying attention - Page 2 - We Get There By Walking

The Time You Don’t Have

Most mornings, while I am eating breakfast, I listen to NPR’s Up First podcast. Like they say:
The news you need to start your day.
The biggest stories and ideas – from politics to pop culture – in ten minutes.
The timing for me is just right.
Ten minutes is about the time it takes me to eat my bowl of cereal and drink my cup of coffee.

While I like the podcast (it is more news than Fox and Friends or Morning Joe), it is the ad for the show which caught my attention. In it the announcer lists all the tasks you cram into the limited amount of time you have in the morning.
Get up.
Get out of bed.
Get ready for work.
Get the children up and off to school.
Get yourself out the door.
And, then this…
All in the time you don’t have.

Here is the truth.
There is only going to be one day in my life when I run out of time. Until then, the time allotted to me is mine to decide how I will use it. I can be busy and run out of time, rushing from this moment to the next. I can push the kids out the door and onto the bus. I can race from here to there and back again. Or, I can be busy, but still pay attention to the moment at hand. To the person in front of me. To the concern that lingers. Looking back, my regrets often have something to do with thinking/imaging I did not have the time.
For her.
For that.
For you.
I wish I could recall and do over some of those moments.

The issue for us is not our busyness.
But how we chose to live in all those busy moments.

Paying Attention

This reflection by Anne Hillman was read as a part of the worship service we attended at the Shepherdstown Presbyterian Church on our way home from our summer work trip. It caught my attention and made me lean in a bit more.
We are all on a journey together…
To the center of the universe…
Look deep
Into yourself, into another.
It is to a center which is everywhere
That is the holy journey…
First you need only look:
Notice and honor the radiance of
Everything about you…
Play in this universe. Then
All these shining things around you:
The smallest plant, the creature and the objects in your care.
Be gentle and nurture. Listen…
As we experience and accept
All that we really are…
We grow in care.
We begin to embrace others
As ourselves, and learn to live
As one among many.

In other words…Pay attention.

And, this story from Matthew’s Gospel.
As they were leaving Jericho, a large crowd followed [Jesus]. There were two blind men sitting by the roadside. When they heard that Jesus was passing by, they shouted, “Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David!” The crowd sternly ordered them to be quiet; but they shouted even more loudly, “Have mercy on us, Lord, Son of David!” Jesus stood still and called them, saying, “What do you want me to do for you?” They said to him, “Lord, let our eyes be opened.” Moved with compassion, Jesus touched their eyes. Immediately they regained their sight and followed him.

In other words…See.

The writer Anne Lamott says there are only four kinds of prayer:
Please.
Thank you.
Help.
Wow.

Being here this morning, I wonder how you pray.
Now I lay me down to sleep…?
Our Father, who art in heaven…?
The Lord is good to me and so I thank the Lord…?
Do you…
Fold your hands?
Close your eyes?
Speak out loud?
Be a quiet as you can?
Is your prayer…
Grace before a meal?
Your morning meditation?
Or, Oh my God… whispered as you hear the headlines in the news?
Or, maybe you just wait for Sunday morning and for Heather or me.
After all, while I am 100% sure it is not true, on countless occasions I have been asked to pray because I have “a direct line to the Almighty.”

What got me thinking about this was something I saw a couple of weeks ago.
A line by the poet Mary Oliver who wrote:
Attentiveness is the beginning of all prayer.
Again…
Attentiveness is the beginning of all prayer.
I used to think prayer was about talking God into something.
Something I wanted.
Something I thought I needed.
Something someone else wanted or needed.
Or, asking God for something and then sitting back and waiting for God to do what I had asked.
But. like my line to the Almighty, I am pretty sure that is not what prayer is all about.
Mary Oliver’s observation rings true for me.
What if prayer is really about learning…
To pay attention.
To see.
To notice.
To look around.

Could it be that merely paying attention becomes our prayer.
Paying attention to the crisis on our borders.
Paying attention to food you are about to eat.
Paying attention to the refugees in makeshift camps cut off from their homes.
Paying attention to the state of your soul.
Paying attention to those who are hungry in our community.
Paying attention to those who sit across from you at the dinner table.
Paying attention to those whom you know who are battling disease.
Paying attention to the warmth of the sun and the coolness of the breeze.
Paying attention to the systemic racism around us.
Paying attention to the money you spend and the checks you write.
Paying attention to those who continue to rebuild their lives in Puerto Rico.
Paying attention to pace of your day.
Paying attention to those who struggle to make ends meet.
Paying attention to the beauty of the flower.
Paying attention to the violence in Nicaragua.
Paying attention to the embrace of another.
Paying attention…
Because there are still bushes which are burning.
And that still, small voice waiting to be heard.
And there are still angels masquerading as strangers.
And visions which remain to be seen.

The Gospel reading this morning was about two blind men consigned to sitting each day in the dirt on the side of the road, beggars hoods pulled up over their faces so others would not see/notice/pay attention to their blindness. Two blind men who defy all the cultural norms by crying out to Jesus. And, then, when rebuked, crying out even louder. Then when asked by Jesus what they want, they reply, “Let our eyes be open.”

Maybe we, too, sit in the dirt on the side of the road.
Blind.
Lost in some darkness around us.
Not able to see that which is right in front of you.
What happens next?
They asked for their eyes to be opened.
May we be wise enough to the same.
To open our eyes.
To see again or maybe to see for the very first time.
Then to move our feet.
And to allow our lives to follow where our prayers first lead.

A Sunday Morning Prayer

In this moment which is now, O God,
But never again
Create some space within us we pray.
Push past our busyness.
And our lists.
And our focus on what comes next
Rather than the moment we have
Right here.
Right now.
Stop us long enough that we might take stock of ourselves.
Who we are.
How we are.
Our dreams and hopes.
Our brokenness and sorrow.
And, to make room for the other and to leave space for you.
Those whom we love.
Those whom we barely know.
For all fall within the circle of Your love.
So, here we are, O God.
Create some space within us, we pray.
Amen.

Paying Attention

This morning
Up early.
Coffee made.
Down the stairs to let our dog out into our backyard.
But instead of going back inside I went outside with her.
Cup of coffee in hand.

I sat down.
Deep breath in the early morning chill.
And I watched as my dog took stock of her surroundings.
She stood at attention for the longest time.
Taking in the morning.
And what was around her.
I sipped my coffee.

Watching her
I wondered
When was the last time
I stood or sat at attention for that long?
Focused solely
On who
Or what
Was around me?
Being quiet enough
Still enough
Silent enough
To notice?

And in that time
To allow God to come close.

This Day

O God, this I ask.
Help me be present in this day I have now
But never again.
To do more than the next thing on my list.
Or, to rush from one interruption to the next.

Help me to look into the eyes
And to see the faces
Of those whose lives intersect mine today.
Catching a glimpse of the Holy
That I otherwise might miss in my haste.

Help me to pull into this passing moment
Those whom I love
Holding them
In the sacredness of this moment.

Help me to remember
That each moment
This moment
Holds the potential for either good
Or evil.
Attention.
Or inattention.
Building up.
Or tearing down.
May I chose wisely and well.

Help me be mindful of my own life.
Both fragile and strong.
Given to me this day as a gift.
That gratitude might weave its way through each moment.

Help me, O God.
Amen.

Gratitude

“If the only prayer we ever say in our lives is “Thank You” that will be enough.”
– Meister Eckhart

A card with that saying on sits on my desk.
I see it every day.
And, truthfully, every day I try to say Thank you.
Sometimes it is a pretty perfunctory prayer for food enough and for the relationships which sustain my life. Other times my prayer comes from a deeper place. The events of the day or chance phone call or email touch something within me and pulls a deeper sense of gratitude to the surface of my life.

If the only prayer we ever say is Thank You…
While I try to say Thank You each day and regularly remind others to do the same, today I learned something new about gratitude.
I learned that gratitude is hard.
It requires effort.
It means stopping long enough to pay attention.
It means seeing who and what is around me.
It means pushing beyond the narrow confines of my shrink wrapped life.
It means making space and letting go and opening up all of which is risky.

And, I used to think it was so easy…..

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Several things I believe: