Snowflakes + Moments: No Two Alike
Many of us are experiencing snow today. Weather offers us a poignant reminder of the importance of paying attention to the current moment - whatever the weather is now, we can be certain it will soon change! Like emotions, we may have a habit of reducing weather to its most obvious basics: snow, rain, sun…. But when we pay attention, really pay attention, we discern slight differences in temperature, wind direction, wind strength - or stillness. We can notice that “sun” refers to a vast array of experiences: strong direct overhead light, the angled light of a winter afternoon, shafts of light as they break through clouds (a friend once referred to this as a “God shot” and that has stuck with me ever since), or the dappled droplets of sunlight that fall through the overhead canopy, landing in luminous bubbles on the forest floor.
And snow… over the course of an hour, we can see it shift from occasional flake fluttering aimlessly earthward, to a parade of flakes arriving with gusto and purpose, to the large, fluffy confections that signal the impending end of the snowfall. This sense of shift and change and nuance being amplified by the wind, the sun, and… the fact that no two snowflakes are alike, just like each moment will melt away and be followed by a moment completely unique and new.
We’re hoping that whatever weather - internal or external - you’re experiencing in this moment, you create the space to take it in, in all its evanescence. CMP Facilitator, Tyler Tinsworth, in the meditation session she led this week, invited us to follow the advice of Patricia Ryan Madison from the book, Improv Wisdom, “When you notice your mind is planning what you will do or say, make a conscious shift of attention to the present moment.... Notice everything that is going on now. Substitute attention to what is happening for attention to what might happen.”
As you can see from the photo, CMP Co-Founder, Will Heins, has taken this advice to heart!
May all beings feel the multi-layered texture of life in all its fullness,
Your CMP Family
