Another-Fine-Mess

FOILAGE AND FLOWERS

You wouldn't be reading this were it not for foliage and flowers. Without plants there would be no oxygen for us to breathe. And while many young children would be relieved if they didn't exist, the rest of us would sorely miss our veggies! Unless you're living in some places in the desert Southwest . . . and it exists even there if you know when and where to look . . . you know that foliage and flowers are all about us.

Familiarity can breed contempt. But the first thing familiarity usually breeds is invisibility. We get so accustomed to the familiar that, for all practical purposes, it fades into the background of our unconsciousness . . . and becomes invisible to us. (This is why you never hear of fish debating the existence of water . . . they're swimming in it . . . it just IS! There may be other reasons why we never hear of fish debating . . . but that's a topic for another time. Just know that they do . . . it's part of the means by which they learn in their schools.)

That same familiarity may be why we don't notice God . . . not God as "the Guy in the sky" . . . rather God as the One in whom we live and move and have our being. If all things are in God and God is in all things . . . then we've got a lot of fishy invisibility going on here!

So . . . when you want to . . . just notice . . . just notice the foliage and the flowers. They're everywhere. We'll notice them if we slow down, pay attention, and take in the details . . . which is what being mindful is about.

This collection of foliage and flowers is presented as an aid to our noticing the familiar. Enjoy . . . slowly!