Be My Guest Monday! Look, Listen and Attend

Hi everyone and welcome to another episode of Be My Guest Monday! Today's guest is Jennee from Cheap Therapy. She's got one of the most vibrant blog designs I've seen in a while, I just love it! And I suddenly realized that I had told her that she'd be my guest on March 15th, except I have her on my schedule for March 22nd. So here's a public apology to Jennee (and anyone else whose schedule I may have messed up). But this post is well worth the wait, ladies and gentlemen. Enjoy.

Look, Listen and Attend
I recently did some traveling, and I have to tell you, that I love to travel. Everything about it! Well, with the exception of jet lag and the expenses. Growing up, I would often would day dream about exotic places with sunshine and sand, palm trees and soft breezes. I did a little bit of traveling in my youth, but it wasn’t until I was an adult that I really found the pleasure and excitement in traveling.

I’d like to thank Donald Miller for refreshing the desire for travel and life experiences. In Through Painted Deserts, Don challenges, “We get one story, you and I, and one story alone. God has established the elements, the setting and the climax and the resolution. It would be a crime not to venture out, wouldn’t it? It might be time for you to go. It might be time to change, to shine out. I want to repeat one word for you.: Leave. Roll the word around on your tongue for a bit. It is a beautiful word, isn’t it? So strong and forceful, the way you have always wanted to be. And you will not be alone. You have never been alone. Don’t worry. Everything will still be here when you get back. It is you who will have changed.”

These words have inspired me so much that I did leave. I packed up my bags and moved from Wooster, Ohio then to Nashville, Tennessee and finally off to Miami, Florida. It was the greatest life experience, full of adventure and fears. And I did change. I changed into the woman that I am now. Since moving back to Ohio, my day dreams of travel have become more frequent, and so I packed my bags and took a quick trip across the country to California. Once again, Don sums up how I was feeling. “We are shaped by our experiences. Our perception of joy, fear, pain and beauty are sharpened or dulled by the way we rub against time. My senses have become dull and this trip is an effort to sharpen them.”

Do you look out the window when you are in flight? Have you noticed the texture of the land down below? The dimensions of the earth rise and fall along the ride, the views of mountains and oceans take away your breath when you take in the beauty of the earth. From above, all you see is the natural splendor, and for a moment everything looks harmless and peaceful. There is no crime, no destruction, and no cruelty. There is only beauty.

In that instant, you take a minute to look, listen and attend. It’s what echoes in my ears and mind in moments of silence, whether in a beautiful scenery or in a new experience.

I am starting to think this is what life is all about. We have to look for what life has to offer. We have to listen closely so we won’t be deceived, and most importantly, we have to be willing to attend to life and it’s experiences. The good ones, along with the bad ones.

Life is full of hard work and we don’t always want to see or hear that. We want life to be a pleasure cruise where everything comes easily. But, it is the hard work and the challenges that fill our life with color and textures. “It is difficult to recall, much less recapture, the excitement of an adventure’s beginning when you find yourself in the boring middle of it.” Don says.

Look, listen and attend, to the beauty that you are daily a part of.