[blockquote]“To pay attention, this is our endless and proper work.” – Mary Oliver[/blockquote]

My darlings, do you see it?

There against the pale stone wall, a seedling has finally realized its bloom.

Taking such care to turn its ‘face’ towards the light, and bask in its life-giving glory.

Under the right conditions the bloom shall flourish. But, absent this balance – too much of one thing, for example – and, even the strongest of bloom will wither away.

Perhaps, in this there’s a lesson to be learned?

That is to say, much like the bloom we need this balance to grow – that we might, in some way, better awaken to this world.

[blockquote source=”Pema Chodron”]The great fourteenth-century Tibetan teacher Longchenpa talked about our useless and meaningless focus on the details, getting so caught up we don’t see what is in front of our nose. He said that this useless focus extends moment by moment into a continuum, and days, months, and even whole lives go by. Do you spend your whole time just thinking about things, distracting yourself with your own mind, completely lost in thought? I know this habit so well myself. It is the human predicament. It is what the Buddha recognized and what all the living teachers since then have recognized. This is what we are up against…

You get so caught up in the content of your life, the minutiae that make up a day, so self-absorbed in the big project you have to do, that the blessings, the magic, the stillness, and the vastness escape you. [/blockquote]

So, what do you think, my dears?