mindfulness

I was having a late breakfast with my friend, EE, who is helping me plan a 'day of refreshment' for people who have done the Making a Difference Workshop, at a diner in Torrington. There weren't many people that since we were past breakfast and not yet to lunch. And while EE was talking I noticed a young woman (20's or so) who was washing down the unused chairs and tables. Whatever was being said to me was lost because this young woman was washing chairs and tables and the legs of the tables with a commitment and a consentration I'm not used to seeing.

She washed almost lovingly and certainly with great consentration and commitment and attention. She was, in my mind, 'totally present' to the task she was doing. A small child--4 maybe--which must have been the woman's daughter, was dipping her hand in the bucket and taking out the soap bubbles and rubbing them on table legs and then making sure her 'mother' finished the job.

I was humbled by seeing how aware and awake that woman was to her job, not minding that she was crawling under tables to wash the underside and the legs, simply doing it because it was her role, her task, her life...perhaps her ministry.

What if we all were that centered and in touch with what was right in f ront of us instead of dwelling on the past or looking to the future? What if each of us--me too--were completely present to the moment of our lives, no matter what that moment required? What if I could live my life in the same intensity and focus as she washed those tables and chairs? What if I could crawl under the table of my life and clean it with such care, such devotion, such love?

What would the world look like if all of us could be that awake and present to the moments of our lives and had a smaller one helping and making sure we didn't short-change each moment of our lives....? What would the world look like?

Something mundane and 'profound' as well to ponder....