Bird's Eye View

This is the view from the center of my house. After having lived in a bit of a topographical depression for years before moving earlier this year, I regularly marveled at this new perspective, high among the trees. Ever a lover of nature, I felt fortunate to be able to so easily observe the birds, especially as they foraged in our fig tree (just below the sightline of this photograph). And even with all the trees, I was struck by a spaciousness and a sense of abundance that had been familiar to me as a child growing up in the countryside. In short, simply peering out of this house on a hill brought me joy.

This week it occurred to me that I hadn't noticed my view in awhile. The busy-ness of life has a way of doing that--of making the marvelous monotonous. We, humans, really like stimulation, and we love novelty, so it's not surprising that time and repetition seemed to have already robbed me of this newfound perspective. It's not that I hadn't continued to look out that window every day, but somewhere along the way I had stopped seeing.

It's like the exuberance surrounding the impending arrival of a baby. The growing excitement is palpable. Then the baby comes, and even though it's the most amazing thing that could possibly happen, it's only a matter of time before we start noticing the not-so-pleasant aspects of parenthood. We're so "in it" that we begin to fail to see the beauty in each moment. It's like everything is too close, and we can't see the trees for the leaves...forget the forest!

Mindfulness, yoga and meditation practice help to counter-balance this tunnel-vision we can so easily develop. As we connect with body and breath, we go inside and withdraw from the world a bit, allowing the mind to quiet and the heart to open. Then when we leave the mat or meditation cushion or simply a moment of breath awareness, we find that the view is once again expansive. We've created the space to allow in the beauty around us--to connect with more good--to feel abundance.