Gifts Wrapped in Paper

Friday 2/20/2015 6:59 AM

I’m sitting in my chair looking outside at a bird flitting among the inner branches of my bougainvillea. The outer leaves are rustling, as if caressed by a gentle breeze. Suddenly I am aware that the refrigerator is running; a quiet hum in the background of my mind rises to the foreground. I am distracted by the horn of a car out on Rosecrans Avenue and my mind runs through differing scenarios of what may have just occurred a few hundred feet from where I am sitting. The aroma of freshly brewed coffee beckons me and I rise from my chair to pour a steaming mug. I note the swirling patterns of the tiny bubbles floating on the surface, affected by the convection currents in the hot liquid. I also note how I can change their path by moving my hand to disturb the medium of air to which they are also exposed. The ticking of the kitchen clock interrupts my thoughts, seeming louder than it was previously, and its monotonous regularity becomes annoying.

We experience our lives us as a rush of sensations, attacking all of our senses. It is impossible to concentrate on every one of them all the time so we jump from one to another, sometimes consciously, sometimes not. Our view of the world is affected either for the better or for the worse depending upon where we focus our attention.

Jane Marie Thibault writes about this in her book, A Deepening Love Affair. “We have been given the freedom to choose what we see, what we pay attention to, what we rest our awareness on. There are zillions of things that can attract us, call us to themselves. Our task is to choose which ones we want to pay attention to, which ones we want to invest our energy in, for we cannot endure full consciousness of everything.” She then goes on to warn that we can get too narrow a focus, having a certain expectation of the way things should be, so that we miss a greater gift. She continues, “No, we must always be expecting a surprise – a gift that is wrapped up in paper, hidden from immediate view.” She suggests that most of us go through our lives with too narrow a view of things, which restricts our ability to experience the blessing of God and our opportunity to bless others.

Jane Marie would suggest that I need to take time each day to “stop, look, and listen to whatever is around and within” me. That heightened awareness will afford me the opportunity to be blessed by God and to be a blessing to others. I need to become more aware of the gifts wrapped in paper.