Pay Attention

“Between the onion and the parsley, therefore, I shall give the summation of my case for paying attention. Man's real work is to look at the things of the world and to love them for what they are. That is, after all, what God does, and man was not made in God's image for nothing.

                                                                        Robert Farrar Capon

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I have never been good at paying attention

In school I was always someplace else in my head

Miles away

A cowboy

A doctor

A pilot

Out in the sage

Performing miracles

Free as a bird 

I got poor grades in math

Not because I didn’t know the solutions

And formulas

But because I didn’t pay attention

And made little math errors

That were nothing but carelessness

When I am with another person

I admit it, often my mind wanders

Sprinting off into the jungle of my mind

Even when I try to be mindful

I usually have what my yoga people call

A “monkey” mind

Chatter chatter

So perhaps it is no wonder that I miss things

Honestly?  I think I get most of it

Perhaps that is not the problem

Perhaps the problem is that is miss the most important things

I miss the beauty behind the beauty

The depth behind the façade

I miss the real

I see the sunrise, but sometimes forget to be grateful for the miracle of the sun

I see the person in front of me, but forget to be grateful for the miracle, that this one

Yes this one, right in front of me, is a child of God

Another miracle if there ever was one

I forget the see what is central

And innate

And thus I because I am not paying attention

I miss out on gratitude

Gratitude that in everything that is

There is at least a little bit of Sacred / God

Perhaps more than a little bit

OK

I guess it is time to pay attention

And be grateful