In its own time

 

from my front yard; alliums on February 20

This week I began noticing signs of spring.  Birds are beginning to call and sing.  Snow drops are blooming in south-facing areas.  Daffodils are coming out of the dirt in some places.  These alliums in my front yard are some of the first things I've seen emerge.  Here you can see both the green shoots and perhaps a little bit of frost burn.  All emerging from the varied brown detritus of fall and winter.

This year I've developed a list of 10 meditations from Insight Timer and taken notes on the "verbal instructions."  After taking these notes, I've started a 10-day cycle of meditations guided by notes and NOT the actual meditation instructor.

One of the instructions was watching the breath "in its own time."  It's one of the Bangor University guided meditations called "Short Mindfulness Meditation."  

Notice precisely the sensations of the in-breath and the out breath; each one is unique, give attention to each one its own time.

That phrase seems part of late-life wisdom: be attentive to things, be curious to watch as things develop and grow and change in their own time.  Things, people, don't change when we want them to.  The world doesn't work or unfold according to our hopes or plans.  

And if we do have plans for things, we will be disappointed AND we will not be able to see the development, the unfolding, uncoiling of the actual world.