Life begins the day you start a garden

– Chinese proverb

Ordinary moments may pass us by when we forget to stop and notice. Simple tasks like gardening are opportunities—open windows and invitational doorways—for feeling spiritual aliveness in the dirtiest and routine of tasks. 

Next time you are outside, whether gardening or sitting enjoying the summer sun, allow your awareness to rest upon something that is capturing your attention. Bring attention to that moment and recognize it as an open window and an invitational doorway for aliveness. 

Whether it is the beauty of a flower, the texture of the dirt, the sparkle of a spider's web, or the warmth of the sun, use that awareness as your opening for return.

In that moment of awareness and connection, simply:

1. Bring awareness to the Sacred Heart Center by placing a hand on your chest or focusing your awareness there. Take a few breaths.
2. Place your other hand or awareness on your Sacred Wisdom Center down around your navel. Breath downward through your inner channel.
3. Take a few cleansing deep breaths and expand your awareness around you by noticing the space beyond your skin—the air, your surroundings, what you are feeling.
4. Bring your attention to what captured you as a doorway or open window and enter into a connection through the flower, wind, dirt, etc. as you expand your awareness beyond the object into a relationship in the present moment.
5. Feel for the aliveness within you. Notice an increased awareness of the present moment. Feel your connection to the form (dirt, flower, wind, bird) that beckoned you. Allow the connection to grow and expand around you as you sit in this present moment—in the aliveness—of this powerful now.

 When we stop and notice during the ordinary tasks of our day, we open into possibility in a new way. These moments of centered awareness bring spiritual aliveness into our life and teach us that everything is connected. Everything is an opportunity. Everything is life. You, too, are part of the vast web of interconnection where spiritual aliveness is present in every single, ordinary moment.

 Connect!

Annmarie