Wednesday, September 17, 2008

moments...

The moments pass us by, we are too distracted to notice the connection, the person, the event. Those moments lead to other moments that we will never see, because we failed to do the simple task of, "paying attention." It is essential for a life well-lived. Look carefully, see with your eyes wide open, listen to the inner voice of prompting, look for connections. When we experience the moment, it leads to other moments and events and people and an ongoing chain of life-changing interactions that echo into our future. So, be alert, life in the present, calm your mind, be where you are, listen carefully and the moments of meaning will become a lifetime of rich encounters. Remember, pay attention.

3 comments:

witheroney said...

When it comes to the practice of the artist, or the attentionj of the creative moment, isn't there a paradox between "paying attention" and a total letting go of the self, at least when it comes to the creative process??
Is there not a paradox between creative freedom and the limitations of the creative form- for example, endless creativity, subjective to a 24" x 36" canvas...?

Maybe it's what TS Eliot used to write about, about what it meant to live IN the moment, that the past, the future, were abstraction, only life in the PRESENT moment was truly life. Carpe diem, that sort of thing.

Or as a 90 year old poet once said, "I like a fence I can trust. It knows where I am , I know where it is, so I can run with it.

witheroney said...

When it comes to the practice of the artist, or the attentionj of the creative moment, isn't there a paradox between "paying attention" and a total letting go of the self, at least when it comes to the creative process??
Is there not a paradox between creative freedom and the limitations of the creative form- for example, endless creativity, subjective to a 24" x 36" canvas...?

Maybe it's what TS Eliot used to write about, about what it meant to live IN the moment, that the past, the future, were abstraction, only life in the PRESENT moment was truly life. Carpe diem, that sort of thing.

Or as a 90 year old poet once said, "I like a fence I can trust. It knows where I am , I know where it is, so I can run with it.

bill catling said...

Yes, TS Eliot in the Four Quartets, Burnt Norton, speaks of the still point of the turning world, there the dance is, neither past, nor present, nor future.

And yes, it is a paradox, the tension between moments that flee from us before they can be held and the letting go of grasping and just being.

Working and resting, pushing ahead and letting it flow, planning and accidents, all combine to crease a life rich in discovery and possibilities.