Finding Beauty in the Ordinary

Old Dodge Work Truck. It has had had a hard life, yet it is still beautiful.

I have recently found the website/community www.soulpancake.com, where spiritual seekers of all faiths, backgrounds, and viewpoints discuss various topics involving faith, religion, spirituality, and life in general.

Recently there was an activity which encouraged the users to take pictures of ordinary things that would normally go unnoticed, but that are inspiring in some way. This idea really resonated with me, because living in the now requires you to slow down and really experience life and the world around you. Therefore, for the past few weeks I have tried to really tune into the mundane things that surround each of us for inspiring material.

As I have mentioned previously I have a bad tendency to put my head down and push through every task in front of me, including in my spiritual path. While I have made tremendous progress in slowing down and enjoying life, I tend to focus on my emotions, thoughts, and general awareness, rather than my individual physical senses; therefore this visual activity was extremely useful for me.

The following are some pictures that I have taken over the past few weeks with a brief description of why I found the subject material interesting and/or inspiring:

Beautiful Oklahoma Sunrise. Taking time to enjoy the effortless beauty of nature was a great start to the day!

Beautiful Oklahoma Sunset. I saw this at the end of a very long workday, and it brought a sense of serenity and peace.

Awesome morning rainbow that my wife tipped me off to before I left for work. I guess it was natures way of wishing me a happy Monday!

My beautiful wife and son on a hay ride during my son’s first visit to a pumpkin patch!

My Wife and mother-in-law embracing after my wife finished her 60 mile walk for breast cancer in Dallas, Texas! The joy of goals accomplished!

Recently, serendipitously since i was already forming this blog post in my head, I was privileged to attend a presentation by my friend Kevin Main, where he did a guided group meditation through the five physical senses. It is amazing how powerful our senses truly our when we simply tune into them. During the meditation I was especially amazed at how powerful the sense of sight is when awareness is simply shifted to truly seeing, and experiencing the sense of sight. The lessons that I have taken away from this activity, as well as Mr. Main’s meditation, is to truly tune into the senses, which are windows into the world around us. Our senses can act as an anchor that pulls us into the moment, and allows us to truly live in the moment, rather than focusing on the mental chatter (monkey mind) that can easily occupy the majority of our waking hours.

Practical Tip: Try tuning into the world around you through your sense of sight. Try seeking out beauty in the everyday things that surround your life, whether they be natural or man-made. Taking photographs of interesting things can help to materialize the practice, and help to further develop your focus. Also, I would highly encourage people to try a version of the meditation described above, where your focus, your conscious awareness, is placed on just one sense at a time in order to truly experience that sense. For example sit in quiet room, and simply sit peacefully and quietly, just focus on your breath and try to relax. Once relaxed: 1) with your eyes closed, just focus on the sense of hearing, focus on what you can hear around you (if anything), and just experience the sense of hearing. 2) with your eyes closed, focus on your sense of taste, fully engage yourself with the sense of taste. 3) with your eyes still closed, focus on your sense of feeling, what do your clothes feel like? can you feel the weight of gravity pushing you into your chair or meditation pillow? 4) open your eyes, and fully experience the wonderful sense of sight, don’t try to focus on any particular object, just experience the gift of sight. 5) close your eyes and simply focus on the sense of smell, fully experience the sense of smell. 6) open your eyes and try to integrate all five senses while maintaining a sense of awareness. Enjoy!
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Also please check out my book, “The Path: Using the Religions of the World as a Guide to Personal and Spiritual Development.” (Click on the book cover to view on Amazon.com)