Paying Attention in Love: A Spiritual Exercise

We start using our senses to experience the presence of God around us when we learn to pay attention in love to our surroundings, the spots where we live. Though it is in God that we live and move and have our being, it is in very specific places like our homes, offices, farms, schools and the like where we actually live and move and are being. Take a few minutes now and look around.

· What do you see?

· What do you smell?

· What do you hear?

· What do you taste?

· What do you feel?

Grab a piece of paper (or a scrap of napkin, computer keyboard, or journal) and write down your answers.

This is a simple step, but it is the first step in learning to pay attention. Seeing God at work and play around us, however, involves more than merely paying attention. Seeing God means coupling our attention with love.

There are miracles all around us. They seem hidden because we do not see them, cloaked as they are in the ordinary. It takes the combination of attention and love to notice them.

When we combine attention and love, we move to a new level of noticing. Love and attention give us a deep, clear look at God everywhere around us. So, with the thought of paying attention in love, slow your breathing, quiet your mind and calm your heart. Now, take a fresh look around, with attention and love.

· What do you see?

· What do you smell?

· What do you hear?

· What do you taste?

· What do you feel?

When you’re finished, write down your answers and compare them to what you wrote earlier. How are they similar? How are they different? How did you catch a glimpse or whiff or touch of the Divine?

-- adapted from "Awaken Your Senses: Exercises for Exploring the Wonder of God"