The striped Barbados Lily plants n our garden are in their flowering stage. The above is a collection of different stages of the flowering stages plants.
The first two photos and the last two phots stand out to suggest the beginning and the ending of the flowering phases. The in between photos show the stages of the flowering phases.
These scenes brought a metaphorical view of life when I was walking in the garden.
The birth, growth and farewell, all well represent in these stages of the Lily plants and their flowers.
The Lily plants are flowering for the last one month. It was only during this week, they became an object of my interest to follow them closely.
Was I sleep walking to have missed them!
Or was there an instance of an awakening within me to call me to be present to what is within and outside!
The de-weeding of the garden is going on. When the overgrowth on the ground got cleared, the plants and flowers stand out without them loosing their distinct presence among other foliage.
That brought me an awareness about the crowding of the mind ! When we allow the mind to be occupied heavily, it shall get 'scattered and diffuse' loosing the quality of selective attention which is what helps us to stay focussed on the important and the immediate, overcoming the distractions.
Our mind has a traction towards the obvious and might stay there too occupied for long till we receive them or bid farewell to them. The character of disciplined mind is to discern and stay focussed on the important. Our mind aids us to be wise in our attention and engagement.
One exercise that helps me to attend to the congestion in the mind is paying attention to the thoughts within the mind, during a pause of five minutes three times in a day. It is during the time I list in my journal the thoughts that surface for attention. By choosing to dwell on thoughts that need attention, there is a clearing of the crowding thoughts. I find that thoughts need our attention and we can invite them to stay or bid them farewell. The mind therefore becomes attuned to what you choose to dwell on. It does not become a place of congestion and preoccupation!
A distracted mind exhausts us. The tiredness in the mind shows up with signs of lack of interest, enthusiasm or lack of motivation to do what one is used to doing.
An awakened mind is ready to stay focussed and pursue the call that we have chosen to engage in and align with it with full attentiveness. I find that when mind is restful, it aids us to do what we do well. A new level of energy gets infused into our being when we develop the practice of regulating our mind !
The mind space is in our volitional control. The debriefing of the mind is needed regularly. I found it useful to revisit the important thoughts of the week and to carry forward what needs attention and allow the rest of the thoughts to fade away by allowing them to stay in the periphery of the mind to get displaced by other thoughts that I am happy to entertain or foster. When we attend, acknowledge, and bring thoughts that need only lower level in the hierarchy of thoughts, even the sleep quality improves with lesser dreams. Some of the dreams are the continuation of our thoughts, fear, anxiety, sorrow or aspiration. When we allow thoughts to fade away by weekly repositioning thoughts according to our choice, the subconscious has no substance or strands of information to weave a story during our sleep to resurface as dreams. We can nurture our subconscious with what we feel could be upbuilding and renewing.
This convergence of our will and mind is what makes work, energy giving and refreshing! That is the pathway for presence in the present!
M.C.Mathew(text and photo)
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