The mind is a terrible thing to waste; but the present is never wasted on the mindful.

Mindfulness:  –adjective attentive, aware, or careful (usually fol. by of): mindful of one's responsibilities. 

I am not very mindful.   I am very fanciful.  I am very imaginative.   I have my heads in the clouds.   Sometimes, I an very absent-minded.   So as I write this blog, I am writing of those times in my life that are not like me at all.   Still, I think that being mindful is one of the best traits to develop.    


The one time that I was very mindful was while I was driving in the rain.  It was dark and windy; rain like the sleeting of a horizontal Niagra Falls.   Each burst of wind would rock my car.   The headlights would alternately shine forth about 10 feet, or reflect off of the torrent before me.   Every application of the brakes would be accompanied by loss of traction and some hydroplaning.  Even driving 20 miles an hour, each pool on the road would hit the car with force, tearing it off the straight path on which I was forcing it.


In such an experience, my senses went on overdrive, much like my transmission.   I was mindful.  Oh yes.   Every sound, sight, feel, smell.   I was there in the moment; from moment to moment because I knew that one lapse in attention and I would end up in a far worse predicament.   I was mindful out of necessity.  


In contrast, I love the times that I become mindful out of beauty.   Sometimes I see something so beautiful that instantly all my perceptions are turned, are entrapped and focus on the object of my attraction.  Some paintings do this to me.   I become focused on the delicate brush strokes, the depth of field, the contrast of colors, textures, light and dark.  I am aware of the chaos of the painter's object from up close and the gestault of the piece from a distance.  My mind seeks out the details; finding pure pleasure in the intricacies of the painting.  

Rarely, I just become mindful for no reason at all.   Sometimes my mind simply becomes super sensitive and fires up all my perceptions and senses and I find I am in a world of more color and contrast, whole and part than I have ever been.  

I stopped and looked at a tree.   No reason.  No purpose.  No plan.  I thought it would take a couple seconds and I would be on my way.   That is how I usually look at trees.   They are scenery, not something with which to spend a lot of time.   

After several minutes, I realized that I had not taken a breath.  I had not even blinked.  I was mindful of the pattern of the bark, the smell of the wood, the leaves, the detritus around the base of the tree.  The wind would change patterns as it intercepted the branches.  A symphony of sounds emanated from the stretching and swaying of all parts of the tree in the wind.   Squirrels danced in the branches.   I could even smell that a dog has done it's business around the tree at some time in the recent past.   I was fully in the moment before I realized it.

Being mindful of things around you is very important.   Not only does it sometimes make the difference between being alive and dead, like in the case of driving, but other times it is the difference between being in a world that is either alive to you or dead to you.   Mindfulness brings us back to the infinite NOW.  It adds value and weight and wonder and grace to the ever-present.  

The mind is a terrible thing to waste; but the present is never wasted on the mindful.