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Today's
quotation:
Do we need to make a special effort
to enjoy the beauty of the blue sky?
Do we have to practice to be able to enjoy it?
No, we just enjoy it.
Each second, each minute of our lives can be like
this. Wherever
we are, any time, we have the capacity to enjoy the
sunshine, the presence of each other, even the sensation
of our breathing. We
don’t need to go to China to enjoy the blue sky.
We don’t have to travel into the future to enjoy
our breathing. We
can be in touch with those things right now.
Thich Nhat Hanh
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Today's
Meditation:
What a
wonderful world is all about us every moment we
live. We all have access to some of the most
incredible things imaginable, almost all the time. A
cold glass of water on a hot day can be one of the most
extraordinary experiences around, and a nice sunset is
something that can make us stop in our tracks and admire
the remarkable beauty on a huge, huge scale.
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We
have the capacity to enjoy these things, but do we?
I remember once being on a city street when I saw one of
the biggest, strongest, and clearest rainbows that I've
ever seen. I stopped to look at it, quite simply,
and as I watched it simply be, I'd glance down at the
people who were walking by. I was shocked--no one
else had stopped to look at the rainbow. A few
people glanced up at it, but most people just went on with
their day, not noticing the rainbow or not caring that it
was there. To me, a rainbow like that could cause a
traffic accident, but to the other people on the street,
it was nothing special. |
They
had the capacity to enjoy it and to be enriched by it (I
certainly was--it's one of my most beautiful memories),
yet they didn't really seem to want to use that
capacity. I can't judge them, for I have no idea why
they might not have been interested, but I do know that
for many people that day, a great opportunity to feel
something very deep straight from nature was lost. I
don't want to miss those chances in my life, so I'll keep
stopping to watch rainbows. Perhaps I'll get a
bumper sticker: "I brake for rainbows."
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| Questions to
consider: Do you make a point of being in touch with
the
many aspects of your life?
How often do you stop to enjoy everyday things in your
life?
Why might people be willing to ignore a rainbow? |
| For further
thought:
I shall open my eyes and ears. Once every day I shall simply stare at a tree, a flower, a
cloud, or a person. I
shall not then be concerned at all to ask what they are but
simply be glad that they are.
I shall joyfully allow them their "divine,
magical, and ecstatic" existence.
Clyde
S. Kilby |
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