I am going to stick my neck out here in a not very stick-your-neck-out way. I’m going to ask this question: what if are we here to appreciate? what if our place in the natural order is as appreciators? And I am going to say that the answer is yes.
I have been sick for a week, so the simplest things feel miraculous—walking upright, getting muddy feet, scrubbing the kitchen sink, eating chicken soup, everything feels new. I appreciate overcast skies and the vigor of weeds and the hair coming off of my dog’s body in danderous blizzards. She’s losing her summer coat. All the signs out in the world say autumn’s coming. Nothing more poignant than autumn. No better time to step up and appreciate.
The challenge is to save your own life by shifting from consumption to appreciation. If you don’t, you’ve missed your real calling. The human tool we tend to hold dearest, our chatty judgemental greedy mind, is only a servant of other greater tools we rarely use: observation, intuition, awareness, clear seeing, spontanteous generosity and appreciation of the whole.
Since you are here now, why not be here now?
There are thousands of practical ways to be the world’s appreciator. Most are highly pleasant. The world welcomes every one.
I have been sick for a week, so the simplest things feel miraculous—walking upright, getting muddy feet, scrubbing the kitchen sink, eating chicken soup, everything feels new. I appreciate overcast skies and the vigor of weeds and the hair coming off of my dog’s body in danderous blizzards. She’s losing her summer coat. All the signs out in the world say autumn’s coming. Nothing more poignant than autumn. No better time to step up and appreciate.
The challenge is to save your own life by shifting from consumption to appreciation. If you don’t, you’ve missed your real calling. The human tool we tend to hold dearest, our chatty judgemental greedy mind, is only a servant of other greater tools we rarely use: observation, intuition, awareness, clear seeing, spontanteous generosity and appreciation of the whole.
Since you are here now, why not be here now?
There are thousands of practical ways to be the world’s appreciator. Most are highly pleasant. The world welcomes every one.
Watch birds
Touch flowers
Draw light and shadow
Investigate open fields
Nap inside a really old barn
Harvest the windfall apples of a forgotten tree
Go homemade, anything
Follow a dog’s meandering trail
See that dog take interest in every scent
Laugh when that dog cavorts with joy
Put your belly on the ground and just relax
Do it again
Send anguish into the earth where it belongs
Gather fresh ingredients for a meal
Smile as cottonwood leaves flap in the wind
Steep tea from wild peppermint
Get bug-level, let go of your agendas and observe
Your life has one request of you: please spend twenty minutes every day interacting with nature. Pleasurable appreciation is the only requirement. Give your monstrously overworked ego a break.
Touch flowers
Draw light and shadow
Investigate open fields
Nap inside a really old barn
Harvest the windfall apples of a forgotten tree
Go homemade, anything
Follow a dog’s meandering trail
See that dog take interest in every scent
Laugh when that dog cavorts with joy
Put your belly on the ground and just relax
Do it again
Send anguish into the earth where it belongs
Gather fresh ingredients for a meal
Smile as cottonwood leaves flap in the wind
Steep tea from wild peppermint
Get bug-level, let go of your agendas and observe
Your life has one request of you: please spend twenty minutes every day interacting with nature. Pleasurable appreciation is the only requirement. Give your monstrously overworked ego a break.
| Ego does not rule the roost. Ego is the ridged black inchworm the chickens eat for supper. |  |
