One of the great pleasures of my life is that I can walk to work. I have trod roughly the same mile and a quarter path to and from work every day for the past ten years. The streets, houses, trees, lawns and gardens are all familiar.
In a superficial way, I have seen everything there is to see many times, throughout all the seasons. It is easy to tune it out, to assume that I know it and there is nothing new of interest. In reality, I have seen almost none of it.
Over the past two years, I have developed a daily meditation practice. Meditation is about being with myself and being aware, and the resulting changes in my perception and focus carry into the rest of my day. The meditative mind is a receptive mind.
As my awareness deepens, I see much more, and at the same time am correspondingly aware of how little of all of it I see. But instead of being disheartened by a growing sense of how little I truly see and experience, I am buoyed by a refreshed sense of wonder at the world. It is an endlessly fascinating place, if I'm open to it. There seem to be infinite layers, and awareness of one layer simply peels it back to expose the next.
Meditating, being with myself and being aware, helps me be aware in the broader world. It cleanses the palate of my mind so I can taste the world afresh.
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