Mindful

Lessons from a Painted Lady

I spied this Painted Lady on my walk last week, hovering above the sea lavender at Laguna Beach.

I slowed my pace, lifted my camera.

She  flitted from flower to flower, dipping her proboscis into the purple blossoms, sipping nectar.

I could’ve circled back later, once my exercise routine was over. But ohhhh, those gossamer threads along her wings and back…!

She seemed totally unaware of my presence. I, however, was wholly engrossed in the slant of her antennae, her perfectly balanced wings and feet. Part physics, pure magic.

When she eventually flitted away, I stashed my camera and resumed my walk.

Mind you: I had a parking meter to feed, errands to run, writing projects in the queue, and…well. Unscheduled activities have their tradeoffs. And still: You can’t perform a cost-benefit analysis in moments like this one! Because even when we fall out of our target heart rate zones, even when our to-do lists are longer than the hours in a day, some things invite (and deserve) our full attention.

Art Challenge of the Month: Rituals and Routines

Mindful 

(a poem from Mary Oliver’s collection, Why I Wake Early)

 

Everyday
I see or hear
something
that more or less

kills me
with delight,
that leaves me
like a needle

in the haystack
of light.
It was what I was born for —
to look, to listen,

to lose myself
inside this soft world —
to instruct myself
over and over

in joy,
and acclamation.
Nor am I talking
about the exceptional,

the fearful, the dreadful,
the very extravagant —
but of the ordinary,
the common, the very drab,

the daily presentations.
Oh, good scholar,
I say to myself,
how can you help

but grow wise
with such teachings
as these —
the untrimmable light

of the world,
the ocean’s shine,
the prayers that are made
out of grass?

This is my contribution to the Art Challenge of the Month, Rituals and Routines. Want to join us? The rules are simple: “Draw, paint, photo shoot, embroider, install, write, muse …. any discipline is welcome. Over the weekend of March 18-19, come and announce here that you have posted.”