Saturday, May 15, 2010

Day 45: Concentration

Concentration: 1. The act or process of concentrating, especially the fixing of close, undivided attention.


Today, I spent the day working in the yard, mowing, weeding, planting flowers, pulling weeds.  As I worked, I realized that my mind was quite busy, rolling over the dilemmas and tasks and conversations and emotions that go along with this life.  As I pulled weeds, I worked too, to pull the weeds of my mind.  To rid myself of that which I do not need.  To clear a way for my attention to be fully on the moment at hand - the beautiful warm sunny day, the peaceful and calm pace in which I was able to spend my day.  However, with my busy mind, it was a challenge to concentrate on the true present moment, as my mind's weeds crept back into yesterday, last week, last month, last year.  


After I finished and named this mandala  "concentration", I looked back in my blog to realize that on April 22nd, I created nearly this identical mandala -- same basic pattern, same basic colors.  I named it Contemplation. Interesting. I guess orange and green and yellow mean similar things to me.  This mandala, of course, has some added elements (squiggly lines, blurry circles inserted within the mandala, small blue dots throughout) - all representing my fractured mind, attention divided, difficult to concentrate on the present moment.  

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