I was hanging out the washing in the backyard yesterday, mildly annoyed with having to do this chore, when I happened to glance over my shoulder.

This butterfly filled my vision…

And suddenly the mundane became exquisite.

Have you had one of those moments lately? Where something small sort of awakened you and seemed to elevate whatever you were doing, bringing it richness and depth.

It’s this ‘small stuff’, and the paying of attention to it, that mindfulness embraces. The everyday, yet miraculous, stuff that we see, hear, sense, feel, are.

So instead of glossing over something that you might already have encountered before (like your trip to work, or hearing the sound of rain, or hanging out the laundry), mindfulness asks you to remember that that’s actually impossible.
That ‘you can’t step into the same river twice.’*
That you’ve never lived this particular moment before.
That it’s different from all the others you’ll ever experience.
Unique.

And your whole life is made up of these moments; these little universes unto themselves…

Yet how often are we really in them?

Where are you right now?

Not metaphorically, as in ‘where is your life right now?’ Or ‘where is your head right now?’ Or even ‘where are your thoughts?’

But physically.
Phenomenologically.
Really.

Take a look around you. Where do you find yourself in this very second?
(Where is your life unfolding this very second?)

And then zoom in even closer, from the external to the internal. To the very body you occupy inside this moment.

How does it feel to be here? To be you in this moment.

Welcome to mindfulness…