The wonders of life
‘The wonders of life are always available to us. The question is: Are we available to the wonders of life?’ Thich Nhat Hanh
Earlier this year I attended a five-day Qigong retreat set in forest in sub-tropical NSW. Each day included many hours of Qigong practice, guided meditations, periods of silence, delicious and healthy meals, and times for resting or going for a walk in the forest. As expected, there were many beautiful moments, such as doing Qigong on the beach early one morning, or watching the sunset from the veranda, or listening to the call of birds deep among trees. But it was two encounters with insects which really stood out for me, and which I still remember with delight months later.
The first encounter was with a praying mantis which had somehow ended up in the meditation hall. I’ve always liked praying mantises and love coming across them in my garden, with their friendly heart-shaped faces and elegant bodies. And of course, they are a wonderful form of natural pest control. What struck me about this one was that when I gently scooped her up in my hands to take her somewhere safe, she seemed completely calm and at ease. She was in no rush to leave my hand when we were outside, and in the end I had to delicately nudge her onto a bush, where she sat for a while turning her head from side to side, before unhurriedly making her way along the branch.
On the first day we had been told there was a nest of stingless native bees near the outside area where we practised Qigong in the morning. I kept an eye out, and on the last day I finally saw them, a whole swarm of them around a planting of deep orange daisies. The bees were black and tiny, each only a few millimetres long, and they all had the tiniest puffs of bright yellow pollen on their hind legs. I was completely delighted and entranced watching them, and it remains one of my most vivid memories of this year.
If I had been in my ordinary routine instead of a five-day retreat, I probably still would have been delighted to come across the sanguine praying mantis and the native bees with their tiny puffs of yellow pollen, but it’s likely that the encounter wouldn’t have been as vivid, nor the delight and the memories as intense. There’s something about a retreat environment which often allows us to be more available than usual to the wonders of life. And while no one, not even monks and nuns, can or want to live in retreat all the time, we can still make small but significant changes in our lives which allow us to be more open to the many little wonders of life which are present around us. Just as there is no nutritional formular which works for everyone, and finding the right diet for our bodies can involve some trial and error, so we may need to experiment a little to discover what helps us most to be present and available to life.
It does seem important to create regular pauses from our ‘to-do’ lists, whether it’s in formal meditation or prayer, journalling, sitting in the garden with a cup of tea, listening deeply to music, or walking mindfully in nature. We may find that we are not only more available to the riches of life during these pauses, but then also at other times as well.
Mindfulness practice:
Set aside 20 minutes and plan a little ‘mini-retreat’ for yourself in the coming days. Based on your past experience, what practice(s) might you like to include in your little retreat, to assist you to be more available to life? At the end of the retreat, write down in a few words what you noticed.
Anja Tanhane