When chaos descends,
sit and look.
See what is in front of you.
The color of stones, the slant of light,
the shapely shadows.
A little spider makes her way
toward the ceiling.
Admire her calmness, her resolve.
A sparrow receives communion
from the open palm of the street.
The plant in the windowsill,
whether healthy or struggling,
is doing its best. Notice.
Notice because it slips your mind
from the fist of bad thoughts.
Looking and seeing
places you back in your body
and its wisdom.
It puts you back in the world,
part of what is being created.
It reconnects you with what’s there,
the sparrow and the street and the sky
and the world of which your worry
is a tiny part, smaller than the sparrow,
smaller than the spider.
There’s wonder enough,
even in a prison cell,
to keep you alive.
When anxiety weighs,
look, and see;
notice
and wonder.
__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
Listen to the audio recording:
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:32 — 2.1MB)