Meditating with MaryAnn

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Thanks for staying tuned...now on to the regularly scheduled programming:

This is MaryAnn's favorite spot to sit while her mother bustles around from fridge to cupboard to silverware drawer to counter to table answering a ga-zillion requests for relief of hunger pains all at once.

Recently, when my head was spinning as fast as the fruit blending into a smoothie nearby, I paused long enough to watch how peaceful and pure MaryAnn's mind seemed. I observed MaryAnn's extended ability to focus on the effects of water filling, dripping, rolling, smearing, and soaking. Her facial expressions showed thoughts freely flowing from one observation to the next...all as if her routine discoveries were a brand new experience...unmarred by previous judgments or conclusions.








                       

 I found myself deeply admiring her patience, her curiosity, her attention span, and her open, peaceful mind.

So...I made a conscious effort to mimic her mind for a few moments. Watching the water flow over her fingertips had a refreshing effect on me, too. (true store) My staring didn't disturb her. In fact, she was delighted to share her wavelength with  me.

As I returned to my next task of pouring the completed smoothie out into 8 colorful cups scattered across the counter top, I made some future plans...I said to myself [paraphrased], "I'm going to dedicate as least a few of the mundane minutes during my daily kitchen duty time to set aside my scattered thoughts and observe and focus the way MaryAnn does as she sits at the sink's edge."

As I try to soak in the source of the non-stop dialogue, deafening decibel levels, stomping feet, smeared food, spilled milk...my gaze will ultimately rest on my children...and I'll have no choice but to remember that my true purpose for busying myself with food preparation in the first place is to nurture all those bodies...and fill them up with some goodness.

Perhaps as I seek to actually understand their constant energy that they unleash around me while I work in such a staple room in this house, my meditation efforts will give my blood pressure a chance to remain more stable (I hope).
Thanks to MaryAnn, ...it already helped at least once.