In a way, nobody sees a flower, really, it is so small, we haven't the time — and to see takes time, like to have a friend takes time. ~ Georgia O'Keefe
Life constantly attempts to teach us to pay attention, but as we grow into adulthood, we tend to cultivate various habits of distraction. It often takes the gravity of serious illness or grief to wake us up. However, there are practical skills we can learn which allow us to pay closer attention while pushing and pulling less on what we encounter.
Mindfulness meditation is not a means of escaping from life, but a strategy for engaging more directly with it. Just as physical exercise increases strength, flexibility, and endurance to support the activities of our lives, mindfulness meditation develops concentration, sensory clarity, and a greater openness to embrace whatever happens in the present. Over time, the strengthening of these attentional skills can alter the baseline level of contentment in our ordinary lives, supporting a kind of happiness that is less dependent on the constantly changing conditions we face.
By practicing being open to the reality of whatever presents itself to us in each moment, we can learn to untangle what has historically overwhelmed us. We become more intimately familiar with the various components of experience. We observe the way these parts work together. We begin to recognize more clearly the nature of suffering which we all share and the capacity within each of us to interfere less with the natural flow of our lives.