starlings

A murmuration
splits! One flock north, one flock south.
One bird's confusion.

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This one bird remains flitting about, alone and in between, as if unsure which group to follow. I think of this bird often, and its teaching. Today it teaches me about the importance of living with deep attention, attention not just to my surroundings, but also deep attention to where my mind is right now.

Where is my mind right now?

And now? Where has it gone to? What thread has it now grasped?

You need to pay attention to it for only a short while to observe that your mercurial mind has a remarkable capacity to rapidly shift the gears of attention.

Sometimes this helps us negotiate difficult and demanding situations. Sometimes, however, we find our minds adrift, scattered and confused, our attention never really settling but flitting about, indecisive, and unable to respond in a meaningful way to the people or experience at hand. Perhaps we call it "stressed out," or "overwhelmed," or "I'm going crazy!"

Try, for a portion of the day, perhaps just the next half an hour of your day, to watch both your mind as well as the input coming in from all around you. If you are working at a computer, notice what happens to your mind during this time. If you are meeting with someone, see if you can hold an awareness of what is going on within you as you also pay loving attention to this person you are with.

If there is reaction, notice the reaction.
If there is defensiveness, notice the defensiveness.
If there is empathy, notice the empathy.
If there is boredom, notice the boredom.

Notice how these things rise and then fall away,
manifest and then disappear.

And here you still are.

And here is this one who is with you.

And here is yet one more moment
to practice attention and loving presence.

I wonder if this is what Jesus was describing to his dear friends, Martha and Mary of Bethany, when he said:

"Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing..."