Gratitude Practice 2020 Day 140: “How have I missed this?”
A big part of my work is supporting Salt Lake City's you”A big part of my work is supporting Salt Lake City's you”A big part of my work is supporting Salt Lake City's youth programs. YouthCity has program sites strategically placed across the city designed to be both walkable and neighborhood based. Last week, I visited one of our buildings like I do on the regular and like I have hundreds of times but this time it was different. Visiting this site is a pretty easy routine and one I can do on autopilot with ease and comfort. Drive up and park the car. Walk inside the building. Do whatever was needed. Exit the building. Walk to my car. Drive away. Normally easy peasy but not this time. As I exited the door and walked to my car, I was struck by a beautiful mature rose garden. What? Where did this come from? How long has this been here? I've never seen these roses before! What the? There i was, totally shocked to see such a beautiful spread of dynamic bright colorful color all in full bloom...right before my eyes maybe 50 feet from the door of our building. What? How? When? Of course I took a bazillion photos all the while completely surprised that I had never...not once...noticed this beautiful garden before...like ever….and I've been coming to this building...for years.
I've been thinking about this silly garden all weekend wondering what other bright parts of our community I've been totally blind too. I'm sure there are lots of really great aspects of my hometown I've never explored. Lots of great food. Lots of great shops. And mostly, I'm sure there are lots of really great people who live right here in my community...living...working...playing...struggling...needing...suffering...that I've walked passed never noticing never seeing let alone celebrating defending or advocated for. Gulp. Like with this totally new to me yet well established rose garden, I am learning everyday just how much I've not noticed...not realized...not seen...not understood...all right before my eyes and I've missed it completely. Where have I been? Double gulp.
Somewhere deep inside Christian scripture, it talks about a refining process where scales are ripped from our eyes so we truly start to see. Here is what I know for sure...First, I am no scriptorian and never will be. Second, it's high time I start paying more attention to what is really happening in my little community. Autopilot is no longer acceptable. And third...ain't nothing comfortable about the eye scale ripping off process.
Tonight, grateful to know about my new favorite rose garden in Salt Lake City...um duh!
Grateful but not surprised that the universe is using a favorite medium to teach me this big lesson….of course it would be color and flowers...it's a perfect teaching tool and medium for me to learn and notice.
Grateful for this sacred eye scale ripping process..and for the painful yet powerful conditions that we are living in that is making and sometimes forcing this reflective evaluative thinking possible. Can't help but wonder just how much I have missed along the way.