Week Forty-One: Discovering Fresh Awareness in the Midst of Daily Routines

I usually spend some time reading in the morning before I meditate. Walking across Central Park this morning, the presence of birdsong took me back to what I had read earlier in a book by Vernon Kitabu Turner, called "Soul Sword". In the reading I did today, Turner talked about having a "child's mind" - called "beginner's mind" in some of the Eastern approaches. "Beginner's mind" experiences each moment as new, and discovers the unexpected in the routines of daily life.

As I listened to the birdsong and remembered Turner's words, I realized that the birdsong I hear most mornings is completely unique each day in both its sound and its location. This morning, the birds seemed congregated off to my right and in an area of the park they weren't in yesterday. I also noticed that the kind of birdsong I hear also changes from day to day.

As I continued to be in my "beginner's mind", I noticed that the paths I walk also change each day. On the paved walkways, different leaves, twigs, dogs, and people appear each day. There is never exactly the same configuration of park denizens from morning to morning, even though the walk is totally familiar - the same in many respects - each day. As I paid attention to what was new, the morning and walk came even more alive for me, and I was delighted to have had this new practice enter my awareness.

And so, this week's experiment invites you to engage your daily routine with "beginner's mind" - with fresh awareness. Even in the midst of the most boring moment or task, something unique exists there each day, each time you engage it. This week, take time to pay attention to what's unique in the familiar moments of your light. There's no demand to find a good or pleasing "something unique." It's more that you have an opportunity to play with "beginner's mind" - with experiencing your world in a fresh way, free from the automatic, mostly-unconscious, way we usually move through familiar experience.

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