🌷🍁🌷🍁🌷
Mindfulness seems to be the buzzword of the day. It had been calling me here and there, when coincidentally, someone gave me a book about mindfulness in bird watching. The book is pleasant to read so far. As I turn the pages, I feel relaxed and calm, because the author's tone and choice of words are relaxing and calming. It is making me want to be mindful in every aspect of my life.
The dictionary compares mindfulness to awareness. I am already aware, or mindful, especially of my surroundings when I am out and about, but true to form in my shortcomings, there are times when I am not mindful enough. So, at the beginning of January and the start of a New Year, I resolved to be more mindful, partly because of the book given to me, and partly because being consciously mindful seems like an excellent idea. If I am more mindful, maybe I will not make as many mistakes, at least, that is my intent in seeking to be more mindful.
Only two days into January, despite my mission of mindfulness, I made my first big flub, because I was not mindful. I baked a chocolate pie for a friend's birthday, and when I sliced it, syrupy chocolate filling ran onto the plate. I should have baked it longer. If I had inspected it more carefully when taking it out of the oven, I would have known. Instead, I trusted a note from long ago that I had baked it for thirty-five minutes, without taking into account that I am using a different oven now, and that different ovens cause different results. Next time, I will be more mindful.
Mindfulness is a two-way street. There are times when our mindfulness is overridden by someone else's mindlessness. No matter how mindful we are, mindfulness and mindlessness sometimes collide.
