Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Contemplative Bear

Like most of us, little bear could easily run from one activity to another. From tree to tree, from adventure to adventure. Never stopping, never really enjoying the moment. Luckily, little bear seems to have more sense than some of us. Little bear has mastered the fine art of contemplation. He is quite content to just sit and enjoy the view. In fact, he can sit quite motionless for hours at a time... just gazing out at the world... deep in thought.


Whether it's sitting on a park bench, or just admiring the view of the low winter sun over the reservoir, little bear has it down to a fine art. While the rest of us begin to get antsy after a few minutes, little bear happily sits there. That's it... to just sit there and be in the moment. He doesn't worry about what has happened or live in fearful(?) anticipation of what is yet to come. He just takes the moments that are there and lives in the present moment.

Little bear has a good lesson for all of us. Because let's face it... we do tend to run from pillar to post, concerned that there isn't enough time in the day to accomplish all that must be done. We schedule our day so full of activities that meditation or contemplation becomes yet one more thing to do. It is just one more thing on our to-do list... along with exercising, drinking water and eating right. We are out for a walk and our thoughts are not present to the walk, but wandering ahead to what we still need to do. In fact, we might even cut our walk short because of all that we have to do. We aren't really focused on what we are doing... but living in the past or the future. The thing with little bear... he can live in the present moment... and we can too. It take a bit of practice... it takes some intention... but we can live our lives now... rather than at another time.

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