Challenges of Writing
I promised myself at the beginning of the year that I would create a blog post every Sunday, with a focus on gardens and mindfulness. It has been a positive endeavor for the most part, but the year has been challenging and some posts have been hard to write just because of what is swirling around me. This last week has been the most difficult as someone dear to me is quite ill. Most of the day I have not been able to string coherent thoughts together, let alone write. But now at 9 PM Denver time, I am going to attempt to complete a short post.
Seeing with Child Eyes
I think this week’s focus words are relevant to my current situation. Seeing with child eyes, the mindfulness focus, is inspired by my grand-daughter Sonya’s first encounter with rainbow chard. She was three years old and visiting my garden when the chard had just come into its own with stems of brilliant, red, yellow, and orange. She took one look, gasped, and said, “Nana, someone has painted your garden!” It was incredibly cute, but it also reminded me of how differently children look at the world. They really look at things because they haven’t yet been told all the labels. They see what is in front of them. There is a newness and a curiosity that we all had at some point in our lives. So this week, my focus is on remembering what that felt like and practicing cultivating it.
Applying Child Eyes to Difficulties
It is easy to appreciate the beauty of rainbow chard and other garden plants. In many cases it is just a matter of taking the time to tune in and really look. But illness is not a garden and the trick for me this week will be staying present to the gravity of the situation before me, and remembering to bring (if possible) child like awareness and wisdom to the situation.
This is week 26 of my mindfulness focus word experiment. If you’d like to know more about it click here.
Beautiful Joann. My thoughts are with you as you tend to a fragile relationship. I recall Georgia saying good bye to her great-grandma Mary last September as we were leaving the care facility. I knew (as we were leaving) it would be the last time we would see her alive. Georgia knew, before I did, the reason we visited that afternoon was because she kept asking me to go there. So yes to seeing with childs eyes, and yes to childrens ways of knowing and wisdom. They are special.
Thank you Brook!