))
Episode 9: Instructions for Living a Life
Manage episode 362758961 series 3474120
Content provided by Patricia Pearce. All podcast content including episodes, graphics, and podcast descriptions are uploaded and provided directly by Patricia Pearce or their podcast platform partner. If you believe someone is using your copyrighted work without your permission, you can follow the process outlined here https://player.fm/legal.
www.patriciapearce.com/podcast
In this episode I share a recent synchronicity I experienced involving a quote from a Mary Oliver poem.
As I have followed her simple instructions for living a life I have found myself transported into the experience of astonishment and wonder.
If you enjoy listening to the WeAwakening podcast, please consider becoming a supporter.
Find out more here.
Transcription
Hello, beautiful souls. Welcome to this week’s podcast episode.
Today, I’d like to share with you a little synchronicity that I’ve experienced of late. Let me just give you the context. I belong to a writers’ salon, and every day, they send out a little a quote that’s an inspiring quote, often about the creative life or the writing life. And one of the quotes that they sent out recently was a little quote from a little passage from a Mary Oliver poem that said,
Instructions for living a life:
Pay attention.
Be astonished.
Tell about it.
So that was a little snippet that they sent out by Mary Oliver. Instructions for living a life: Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.
Well, I thought that was a pretty great little quote. And then in the morning, every morning, one of the things that I do early in my day, is I read a poem. And often I read a Mary Oliver poem, and I just work my way through a book I have. I think I have all of her books! So I go through them sequentially. And a couple of days after they send out that quote, lo and behold, I come to the poem that that little passage is excerpted from
Instructions for living a life:
Pay attention.
Be astonished.
Tell about it.
So by now I’m paying attention [laughter], because this little poem now has shown up twice in just a matter of a couple of days.
And then I’m in a dream. I have a dream a couple of nights later, or maybe it was the same night, and this little quote shows up in my dream, this little quote from Mary Oliver
Instructions for living a life:
Pay attention.
Be astonished.
Tell about it.
So when I get something that comes my way three times, I pay attention! And I think, Okay, this is something that is communicating with me.
And so I’ve just been sitting with this, and I just love the the conciseness of this, and that this is how to live a life: to pay attention. And just that first line, pay attention, is jam packed with wisdom.
Because so much of our time as we know, we are not paying attention. We’re living our lives in an abstracted, distracted state. We’re in the abstractions of the mind, and we’re distracted from what we’re doing, and we are not paying attention, and our life is passing by, and we’re not paying attention.
So that one little thing, just if I put that up on the bathroom mirror, it would be such a powerful instruction. Pay attention.
So I’ve been practicing more mindfully paying attention. And, of course, what we find when we really start to pay attention, we are astonished. That second line: be astonished. It comes naturally, when we start paying attention.
The other day, I was out taking a walk after a snowstorm that we had here in Philadelphia, and I had this instruction on my mind. So I set out with that intention: to pay attention. And so I set out on my walk, and I was paying attention.
And the first thing I saw, really mindfully, was this holly bush that’s planted a couple of houses down from us. And I was paying attention to those waxy, deep green leaves with those bright red berries. And I was astonished.
And I kept walking and I came to a bush, where there was snow on the bush and it was starting to melt and starting to freeze. And there were these tiny little icicles that were forming that were catching the light, these little icicles that were about an inch long. And I stood there, and I looked at them. And I was astonished.
And I kept walking, and I came to a bush, and I could hear inside of the bush, this flutter flutter flutter. The sound: flutter flutter.
So I stood and I looked into the bush, I looked between the leaves, and I could see these little birds that were hopping about on the branches of this bush. Flutter flutter. And I could see them as they moved between the leaves. And I was astonished.
And my walk went on like this. And then as I circled back around the block, and I started to get closer to home, I heard this chorus of birdsong. Birds chirping and they were so loud. Where, what is that? Where, where are these birds?
And so I walked up to the end of the block. And across the street where this there’s this thicket of bushes that are bare now during the winter, there were dozens and dozens and dozens of these little birds, and their feathers were all fluffed up in the cold. And they had all congregated there, and they were chirping their hearts out, and there was this glorious birdsong and it was filling the air. And I was astonished.
So I’ve been doing this and the more I pay attention, the more astonished I am by the simplest little things. I was making banana bread the other day, and I was creaming the butter and the sugar, and I was watching it as it combined and changed color and became this creamy texture. And I was astonished.
And now here I am telling about it.
Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it. I can think of no better instructions for living a life.
So I leave that with you. And until next time, I bid you peace
The post Episode 9: Instructions for Living a Life appeared first on Patricia Pearce.
46 episodes
Share
