Mindfulness, I am told, is the practice of being aware of the things and people around you. Taking time to notice and appreciate them. Walking with your eyes open instead of spacing around. I think sometimes I have been unaware or ignorant of things that I deemed to unpleasant to handle so I pretended they weren’t there.
Like death, for instance. I was not involved with the deaths and burials of several relatives while I have been in Milwaukee. Nor did I notice the deaths of some acquaintances in Milwaukee. After the death of the friend who took the pictures of my wedding I kind of shut down. Now I think about deaths I have noticed, like that of a consumer in a mental heath program here I was working, a carpenter Bob Plevin who worked for a company that considered becoming a worker owned business, and now Joan Lawrence my former boss. There was a death in another program where I worked and so it’s all becoming a little much. The ages of the people who are dying disturb me, too, because they are all around my age. I’ve participated in the remembrances of the people I’ve named but it doesn’t make it any easier to handle. It is one of the things that came with this life, and I can either pretend to be unaware or appreciate the one wild and precious life we are given. Mindfulness?
Actually not all of mindfulness has been about death, just the painful parts. I noticed my wonderful great-niece when I returned to Buffalo last winter. I notice co-workers these days and appreciate them. I notice my cat zooming through the flat looking for things to get into. Apparently the food that I’ve been buying has been okay with her.Even the cat tells me to stop isolating and pick up things strewn about so I do. I’ve even noticed my increasing number of subscribers. I’ve noticed that this will be my best year financially in several years but also the most expensive. Most of all I notice all the great things I’ve learned this year When I skipped the Employee Recognition Night Dinner, I was missed. And the woman who interviewed me said, next year I’d better be there. I noticed that the most. I notice being missed.
Mindfulness (Photo credit: kenleyneufeld)
Related articles
- Getting Fearless about Death and Dying (evolutionarymystic.wordpress.com)
- How to Die Well (brokenbelievers.com)
