The Joy of Paying Attention

 

 

 

 Taste and see the goodness of the Lord. - Psalm 34:8

I've heard this line from Scripture many times, but I've never really stopped to reflect on it before. It is an invitation to pay attention to the beauty around us and to remember who made it. It is through our senses that we experience life and come to know the goodness of God. God has created this amazing world for us and so often we take it for granted. Most days, we go through life in a fairly numb state. We get up, do what is required of us, and never really feel alive. We are merely existing, waiting to go to sleep and get up and do it all again the next day.

How might our lives be different if we paid attention? This psalm instructs us to taste the goodness of the Lord. I know I often do something else while I am eating breakfast and lunch (usually reading or working). While I try to make food that tastes good, I don't necessarily appreciate it or savor it. I eat my meal and then move on with my day. I don't taste my food thinking of how God provided the sun and water and raw materials for each of the ingredients to grow. What if I did make a conscious effort to appreciate each bite? How might that change the experience of my day?

The psalm also tells us to see the goodness of the Lord. The world is full of amazing creations - the sky, plants, animals, flowers, rocks. It isn't possible to stop and pay attention to every little thing. If we did so, we would soon suffer from sensory overload. But what if we took the time each day to pay close attention to something in nature: appreciate the sunrise or sunset, the bird that comes to sit on a tree outside your window, the tree itself, the falling snow, or a green sprout pushing its way through the earth in spring. We can stop and acknowledge fleeting moments of beauty.

God made this incredible world and gave us our senses so that we might appreciate it. Taking time to pay attention to the good gifts God has given us can help us cultivate a spirit of gratitude and joy. It gives us the opportunity to take a break from our hectic, stress-filled lives and to simply be. It doesn't cost anything but a few moments of our time. What do we have to lose?

This post is part of a blog hop by Spoken Women, an online community of Catholic women nurturing their creative callings. Click here to view the next post in this series "Taste and See"