Awaken to Wonder

I took my kid to a playground. It's his favorite playground and I like it because of the swing set. I think it's a 12-foot bar, so you can get some good speed going if you feel confident and have a little bit of weight. 

After my three-year-old took a turn on the swing, I took a turn. I started by asking him to teach me how to swing, saying things like, “What do I do to make this swing work? How do I do it?” I helped him tease out ideas and then proved them by swinging.

I started swinging faster and faster, higher and higher, until I was flying. 

Another boy, about eight years old, had come over and was getting on the swing next to us. He was negotiating sharing the swing with another boy, a couple of years younger (maybe 5 or 6), but then he looked up at me as I was whooshing by.

The 8-year-old saw how high up I was, and with pure astonishment, said, “Whoa! How do you even get up that high?”

I showed him tips and techniques to develop his skills of harnessing the mechanics of motion on a swing set. 

Besides the advantages of my adult size over that of a child, his timing was off and his mechanics were clunky. 

I admired that he was listening and working on it; but in that moment, I realized that the road to virtuosity has multiple steps. Each step has a certain skill and finesse that, when practiced and refined, makes one a craftsman.

Your size will only get you so far; your skills will take you to new places.

“You'll grow into it”, I said with an encouraging smile.

It occurred to me that this kid had a paradigm shift about what you could really do on a swing. 

Now, he was learning to apply leverage to the right point on the chains so that his weight could be fully-expressed through the total range of motion of the swing set.

He experienced a quantum leap. He went from being unaware, to having techniques to practice and develop into skill, and he had a path to achieve something that he’d previously thought was impossible.

I hope it is seen that this is a microcosmic example of a macrocosmic need – to open to new possibilities for yourself, learn technique and develop skill to live into that new possibility, and then practice and refine that new skill.

Instead of creating his future experience through past projections, he was brave. He tackled something new that he didn’t already know how to do. 

1. He recognized his desire, 

2. He deployed attention, 

3. He applied technique to harness his desire

4. He practiced, developed new skills, and allowed himself to learn and grow. 

This takes patience, persistence, and perseverance. 

This got me thinking deeply about ways that I could more potently employ attention, to deploy mechanics, to reinforce technique, to transmit a clear signal more effortlessly, to receive the bounty of the universe more fully, and to experience the fullness of life more completely. 

Experience starts with attention.

Start where you are. 

Refine skills that bring you results you desire, and you will create more of the results you desire more quickly.

Like the 8-year-old boy on the swing; patience, persistence, and perseverance will focus and refine your effort into skills that further focus and refine your attention into mastery.

Mastery of technique and skill turns anyone into a virtuoso.

May you, dear reader, develop virtuosity in directing your attention by awakening wonder so you create freedom through whatever you do.

Awaken to the wonder of there being attention to experience itself in the first place.

Here’s an exercise to try:

1. Breathe love into this awareness wherever it goes, whatever it does; hold on loosely and breathe. Triggers and emotional blocks are likely emanations of ancestral trauma, coming up to be healed through you, and cleared by you.

1. Let the earth have its energy back. Let the earth help you with whatever doesn’t serve you by giving it back to the cosmos. Let energy go and be received where it can be most fully expressed for the great service to all of life.

1. Awaken to the wonder of sensation with the breath. Let old ways dissolve in the light of attention so there’s room for new experiences. Awaken to the wonder of there being a being to be in the first place.

1. Practice full body breathing with attention and compassion for (like cradling without smothering) the subtle areas in your body. 

If attention is light, then full body breathing is like the aerosol spray that disinfects through awareness all areas exposed to breath. Breathe fully and exhale completely to wipe away the residue.

When it’s all released, what’s still there? For me, only wonder remains. Breathe into it and notice how it expands and grows. 

Expand. Relax. Focus. Repeat.