Friday, December 12, 2008

take a moment


A Barred Owl lit on a branch just outside my studio window a few days ago. Probably the guy who's hoots I've been hearing late at night for several years now. My daughter has become wonderfully adept at imitating his call.
I feel pretty lucky to be living where I do. My house is perched on the edge of a ravine. I've seen fox, coyote, and all number of strange and beautiful birds.
I don't stop and marvel at the view from my window as much as I'd like. Too focused on my deadlines usually. The Vietnamese monk Thich Nhat Hanh suggests creating mindfullness prompts to help us return to a consciousness of ourselves. To be aware of living.
Perhaps I will try using the little 'ding' that sounds when I get an email. Whenever I get an email (and I certainly get plenty of them), I might just stop and take in the view before clicking to see what new calamity hath arrived.
Who knows, it could be that I'll get less grumpy over all my emails.

2 comments:

Jaime Temairik said...

What, what? We have foxes and owls in West Seattle? This is worth hooting about!

Maybe you could record the hoot and use that as your 'you've got mail' ding instead.

Paul Schmid said...

Hi Jaime,
Haven't seen the fox in years, but they're sneaky anyway.
The hoot idea is a hoot, but perhaps I should have my email shout: "Get To Work!" instead. I'm gazing out the window too much lately. I guess I'm easily trained.