“When you really pay attention, everything is your teacher.”
Every month, All Peoples makes materials available to facilitate exploring a theological theme. Our March theme asks us to explore Paying Attention.
Mary Oliver wrote, “Attention is the beginning of devotion.” It’s an essential reminder that we cannot love what we do not fully see. Glances keep us on the surface of things and prevent us from finding deeper meaning in our life experiences.
Attention wants more for us than this. It wants us to learn that truly experiencing our lives requires the difficult work of noticing our desires and then putting them down. This asks us to look without expectation but rather with acceptance. It’s a way of looking that enables us to discover something entirely new, entirely unique. And once we notice that stunning uniqueness, it will contribute to our transformation. This deep way of looking, of paying attention, leads to an enhanced gratitude practice.
The recent Walk For Peace, led by a group of Buddhist monks who walked for 108 days from Fort Worth Texas, to Washington D.C, offered those who followed them, either in person or online, a rare opportunity to look deeply into the practice of mindfulness, of living fully into the present moment, of paying attention in ways we may never have before. In so doing, those who followed the monks’ journey developed a deeper understanding of practicing kindness and learning when and how to let go of thoughts and practices that no longer serve us. Paying attention in this manner reminds us that our words and actions impact other beings in positive and negative ways and also provides us with a deeper awareness of the wisdom we carry within us.
All of which is to say, if you are willing to intentionally pay attention to even the most mundane moments in your life, you can expect to not only feel grateful, but you should also be prepared to feel transformed. Paying attention can be considered to be a reminder that to look, to really look at even the smallest experiences of our lives, is to embrace being changed- made larger, rather than wandering through life without the gifts that paying attention can bring us.
And maybe in the end, that’s what we should be most grateful for: the way intentional looking, being aware of every moment, almost always, leaves us larger.
One of the best ways to explore our monthly theme is to talk about it with people who are close to you. It’s also a great way to develop trust and deepen our relationships! So let’s explore together! Click
HERE to access a list of reflection questions.
