Noticing the Patterns in Everyday Life

The first step in helping ourselves move along a road of interior reflection is noticing what is happening around us in our lives. This seems like a pretty simple thing to do, but for many years I went through each day without savoring anything that was being tasted. I rushed from one minute to the next, focusing on little but the next moments, those to come.

The only way to start on a road of reflection is to begin to live in the now, the present. God lives in the present. It is there we will meet Him and we meet him first by noticing our own activities. Listening with our heart to what is happening, why it’s happening. Now if I sound like one of those people who find meaning in almost everything, it is because I do find meaning in practically all the happenings of our lives. It was not always that way.

So today start by noticing what is going on. Slow down, listen, and you will be surprised. Don’t worry about trying to analyze everything, but start to notice it. Journal your day or even your week. Notice the small things as well as the big ones. Imagine someone made a movie of your life this week. Your own reality show, starring you and God.

It’s a challenge to notice things going on around us. Some of it is the obvious nature of what goes on in a frenetic existence, but routine and boredom can also be a cause. Just as the human eye scans sections of the image in front of us and then puts it together in our brain, there are pieces we know are there, but we haven’t noticed them.

Some might call this camouflage of the senses, but often, to those around us, it’s an ineffective excuse for rudeness and uncaring behavior.

When we don’t speak to the person whom we consider more significant than another, what message does that send? And to all those around us?

Patterns 
Sometimes, actually a lot, I miss stuff.
It is lost in my every day,
unnoticed, or heavily disguised,
whatever,
it is missed.

Might be an image, a familiar noise,
people, food,
the autopilots in my life,
painting a backdrop which seems to be only
one color and one sound.
Gray and bleak.


So, let today be different. 

As I read this meditation/poem what does it mean to me?

What patterns are hidden in my life? Do I see my day in color or shades of gray? Are those patterns sounds, or visual, behavior, or ritual? Do I like the patterns I see? What are they telling me?


Reflection, photograph and poem Copyright 2024 Michael J. Cunningham OFS