“It is the fullness of our attention
to whatever is near
that has birds fly out of God’s mouth” ~Mark Nepo
I was deeply touched by the quote above that I took out of Mark Nepo’s book The Book of Awakening.
The question of what we attend to has been on my mind lately…a lot. My gratitude is ever growing for this pause where I can attend to things with more presence. I am finding now, at home without too many distractions, that as I lean in more and allow the actual stopping of the “normal” routine and outward focus, that intrigue is growing towards what really drives and inspires me.
We’ve all heard the quotes that refer to how things grow under our attention…thought forms, emotions, ideas. I have experienced this truth time and again. Next comes the question of what don’t we tend to? With the frantic pace of life in these times, I think most of us find that things get dropped from the “to do” list frequently, as priorities grab the space available. Two things arise for me here…priorities and choices. Not unlike the question from an earlier blog that asked us to consider what was primary, I think we MUST pause to ask ourselves what we give priority to in our lives in terms of what receives our attention. Our bodies? Our children? Our partners? our work? soul? Our animals? Nature? the glaring (sometimes screaming) aspects of our psyche? Our home? what???
And why?
How do we make these choices and DO we make those choices? or are we just shuffling along doing the next thing without really considering that we do have choices and that where we put our precious limited attention and energy, has an impact on the world around us. As Nepo says, “birds fly out of God’s mouth” with the “fullness of our attention”.
I love the sound of that and the images that attend it. For me it speaks to a kind of synchronicity-rich life that I find blossoms forth when I am in the flow of heartfully attending the inner and outer world. Stepping into Flow, requires that we give our attention over to …something. When we do…when we make something our priority, magic happens.
So much of our world…inner and outer…is starving for our attention.
There are days when I am out in Nature that I give my attention over to a tree, or a stone, the water or a bird. I love it up…I soften…drop out of my head and offer my Love. This has impact.
Offering love and a seeing of the other is how we begin any communication with the more than human world (and my God, what if we did that with every human too???) Simply this kind of tending…the offering of love and presence, changes them..I’ve seen it over and over.
I’ve known for quite some time..maybe lifetimes, that our communications with the Other worlds, is an essential and billowingly rich arena in which mystery plays.
Now I am beginning to study it and I’m touched by what I am finding.
I want to share with you all a 50 minute long video that I think is remarkable…AND informative. It is a story of a woman (who is my hero and I SO want to have as my teacher!) who is an animal communicator, Anna Breytenbach. Perhaps some of you have heard of her…some of her work with a black leopard went viral on youtube a while back. I am putting my energy into this world now…training as, and where I can, and spending time reading and listening to those who are working in this territory AND who’ve studied it over time. It’s roots dig deep into our ancestral lineages and my indigenous soul sings loud when it witnesses these stories….this intuitive tracking…this remembering of the unending shimmering web of connection that we live amidst. In turning to face and attend the Other than human world, and then giving ourselves over to communicate there may just offer up a wealth of understanding that could hold our survival in it’s hands.
Watch this film https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfP-XBUbMvs
and you will see where my attention is now called.
Where is yours called?
Are you responding?