Observant

The Mystery within...

I am coming to understand the true importance of being observant.  All discoveries, both within and outside myself, begin with my observing.  It is the primary attribute in successful science and now I see it as a simple key to successful living.  It is how I come to live in the present, with what is, through observation.  It suddenly seems so simple.  Just be observant of self and others.  Last week I wrote I observed my ego in my rattled reaction to another and then could forgive my self and feel compassion for the one who rattled me. 

Some related words in my thesaurus for observant are:  attentive, diligent; dutiful, deferential, respectful; regardful, faithful, conscientious; vigilant, prudent, and watchful.  Who wouldn’t want to be all that?

True joy also came with observation this week as I walked my yellow lab, Oliver, across the river on the bike trail that takes us to the woods.  As we crossed the bridge the late afternoon sun was at our back.  It highlighted glorious bright orange, red, and yellow leaves on the trees ahead of us along the bank.  Then a strong gust of wind released a mix of color thirty to forty feet above the trail ahead of us and held them there for a time in a wild, joyous dance before letting them settle back down to eventually turn back into earth again.  As we returned on the trail, the lowering sun colored small puffs of clouds above the river ahead an iridescent orange that soon turned to gray as we crossed back over.

There is so much to be gained from being observant.

What if we were all more observant more often?