I’ve been exploring a new park lately with a friend. It’s City Creek, a watershed area near Salt Lake City. It’s new path. New sights. Lots of Blue Jays. And beautiful snow fall (shortly after I took this picture, that covered most of the ground).
It’s the green of the Watercress (from the cabbage family) that got my attention in this. From a February day growing so abundantly, next to trees and forest that remain mostly in winter rest.
One of my favorite games to play is embedded in the delight of wander, whether that be a new park, or the ordinary occurrences in a day. I’ll call it a game because I like to gamify just a bit. However, more deeply, it’s consciousness work — coming to know more of how the deeply and personal inner connects to the outer world of things, meetings, tasks, etc.
The game is basic. And is to be repeated. Wander builds wander. Consciousness builds consciousness.
What’s it like to be you?
What has your attention?
What might that have to do with who you are (or who you are becoming)?
In this Watercress instance, City Park, what it’s like to be me is to be a person feeling wonder. Wonder of exploring. Wonder of new land and path. Wonder of new feeling.
It is the Watercress that has my attention. I don’t know much about Watercress, but I’m drawn to its abundance in the contrast of sleeping winter. It’s abundance growing in the shallow creek.
In my version of becoming, I know that I seek to live with an overarching orientation to wonder. To live with appreciation. To live with curiosity. To celebrate what grows, be it the subtle within me that takes time, or be it that which pops up robustly in an instant.
There is delight in wander to me. It is one of the most fruitful and delightful practices of conscious living that I know. It can be found anywhere, anytime. Including at a nearby creek, offering it’s green to flourish within me.
Delight in wander.
