TOURIST

TOURIST

“Become a tourist in the space where you are right now. Pay attention to the ordinary things around you – give life to the ordinary things that are co-existing with you. Take five or ten minutes to awaken yourself to the specialness of simply, “being.” This request was penned by poet, Natalie Goldberg. With little effort, I made a list of fifty things.

I was taken back by what happened. The inanimate objects indeed took on life as I made note of them – gave them my attention. “NO” the stack of my son’s favorite childhood books under the TV did not move to the sofa or anything like that. As I looked at them, I was reminded of how much he loved the book, “Follow The Drinking Gourd,” and how it had informed his young understanding of the enslavement of our ancestors. I read it again later that day. Memories represent life. A yoga mat and bolster remain on the floor of my “she shed” most days. To an outsider it might appear that they are occupying space waiting for Friday’s zoom yoga class. The life of the mat lies in the reminder to stretch as needed during the day. The faded maroon bolster, placed in front of the window and behind the green plants, is where I begin my day. Both support my desire for a healthier lifestyle and are life giving.

Looking at my ordinary things in my ordinary space that I occupy daily with the eyes of a tourist (one who travels and visits for pleasure and interest), gave life to the things. I was a traveler in my own space and visiting for the pleasure of knowing myself more fully.

To be perfectly honest, the exercise also helped me to see how cluttered my space had become. There were things on the list that were not life giving – nor were they life diminishing. They were simply inanimate objects needing to be released into the garbage or the giveaway bag. If it is not nourishing, then what good is it?

I was further enlightened by the cluster of plants overwintering in front of the window and drawing life from the light that floods through it. The twelve panes in the metal frame are lifeless but the plant doesn’t know that. My imagination led me to believe that the plants thought otherwise based on their experience with the window and light. The services that I provide for the plants are water, rotation, fertilizer and when a leaf turns yellow and dies, I remove it. The leaf is no longer being nourished nor is it nourishing the environment. What is true for the leaf is true for the ordinary objects around me.

As I come to the end of this scenario, a question looms on the horizon, should I have asked you to be a traveler instead of a tourist? Why? It is said that a traveler sees what he or she sees and comes away with memories. A tourist sees what he or she has come to see and comes away with photos. Either way, ordinary things are not so ordinary when one changes the lens through which they are viewed.

1Corinthians 15:46

PONDER THIS THOUGHT---Desire to find life in the ordinary. Out of that blooms the extraordinary.