Being Still for 15 Minutes

Flower Structures

Today on a break I sat outside, away from computers and phones, and practiced just being. Why is this so darn hard??

Thoughts came floating in and I let them float by. I looked at the ground. I looked at the sky. I looked at the golden air where sun streamed between tree limbs.

Here are my observations:

I felt the breeze as it came from my right, then abruptly changed course to directly in my face, bringing different scents with the shift.

A tiny sweat bee hovered in the air to my left. It received company, up to five at one time, buzzing and bumping around each other. Then the one was alone again (introvert I guess…)

A pair of crows flew above with lazy purpose, issuing three distinctly different calls. Eventually the pair ended up in a tree across the road where they often hang out.

A black ant decided to investigate my book (Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance). It did not care for it and scurried off.

A puppy cloud, with wagging tail and a button nose morphed into a macabre court jester skull and then dissipated completely.

The sun and shadows on the nearby mountain range, changing as the clouds passed overhead.

That is an awful lot of stuff going on in just fifteen minutes. Yet, how often do we miss these continuous movements, changes, shifts, in our environment? At the end of the day there was a stunning double rainbow, so vibrant and so close I felt I could walk through it.

I encourage you tomorrow to try this for yourself. Just sit for fifteen minutes outside. Notice. Listen. Feel.

Now where is that pot of gold?

~SE, refreshed but pensive