The Wide Open Spaces of the Mundane

I am learning, slowly about space. So when I was taking a shower recently, I noticed, I mean, really noticed, the drops of water on the wall of the shower stall. It was startling, really. How many times had I looked at that wall and simply glazed over it before thinking about something else. Not today. With rapture, I watched the activity and trajectory of each tiny drop. Some meandered down the wall, like they had all the time in the world. Others let gravity pull them down. Zip, they were gone in a flash. Some crashed against others, exploding into larger pools of dewy wetness before disappearing among the rest. And then I noticed two slow moving drops lazily roaming down the stall, one from the left and the other from the right. Gently, without hurry, they met in the middle, right at my eye-level. And when they came together, they formed a perfect heart for the briefest of seconds. Then gravity pulled them together. I blinked, and they were gone.

If I hadn’t been paying attention, I would have missed it.

Observation, a glorious activity that opens up possibilities.

But we have to slow down, stop, and stand in wonder.

Re-claiming space begins with such observation. We have to notice what is around us. We have to learn about our surroundings. We have to care about our surroundings. Not an easy thing today with our smart phones, head down, fingers occupied.

We talk and text, we chat on the phone, we move in rhythm with Facebook and its incessant updates. Videos. Netflix….a constant distraction.

But to feel our space, to take up meaningful space, we must stop the constant motion and forever chatting, turn off the technology, and just observe. Silently.

When was the last time you just breathed and felt the wind enter your nose and skip down your throat? What about stillness? Have you tried sitting, hands empty, and simply looking up to observe the vastness of the night sky?

Whether city dweller or rural land owner, we all can stop and look at the space we inhabit now, right now; it’s where we live our daily lives, whatever that may look like.

Our journey from small, to authentic and grounded taker-up-of-space, begins with observation. Discover your surroundings, learn what it has to give you…cultivate the trust that it takes to take up space in this world.

Your call to action for the week: stop, sit, take 3 big breaths, observe and listen for 5 minutes. What do you notice? How do you feel?