19 Mar, 2009 - Attentiveness

I was thinking today about a quote I heard (I can't quite remember where) from Malebranche, a 17th century French Catholic priest, who really sums something up quite nicely.

"Attentiveness is the natural prayer of the soul."

I believe this, wholeheartedly. If one is attentive to the world around them, one sees its beauty, its delights and opens up to every experience, good and bad. That is the essential joy of life - and it is exactly that - essential and REAL! Seeing the world attentively allows me to reach towards the universal. That may seem like a contradiction, but allow me to explain.

Most of us spend our whole lives missing things. We fall over, drop things, make stupid blunders that we've made a thousand times before, we forget and put our foot in it. All the time. In seeing the little things that I would normally miss, I express the worth and dignity of everything I see and do, no matter how stupid, mistaken or tiny they may be. In seeing this wonderful dignity, I see how beautiful the universe is as a building of minute parts, and in this, I feel liberated. Free to reach beyond my everyday, stupid experiences and find the unique within them.

I think Malebranche got it right. When we are attentive to all the little parts of the world, we experience joy and gratidute, and express it in our actions and deeds. It is my hope that these actions are worthy of prayer.